Ashes Like Rubble (Simile)
When describing her aunt Eunmi's ashes, Zauner compares them to rubble, saying: "The small pile of dust was not a consistent powder but more like rubble." This description depicts the surprising texture of the ashes while also emphasizing the sense of devastation that accompanies them by alluding to a destroyed building.
Like Something Out of a Disaster Movie (Simile)
After arriving in Korea, Zauner's mother experiences an intense escalation of her symptoms: "The onslaught of her symptoms was like something out of a disaster movie." By comparing this accumulation of health problems to a disaster movie, she frames how it felt to see its suddenness and the terrible pain it inflicted.
A Towering Obelisk (Metaphor)
While writing about a difficult period in her relationship with her mother, Zauner uses a metaphor to portray her mother's forceful pushback on her behavior: “She doubled down, morphing into a towering obelisk that shadowed my every move.” This obelisk metaphor underscores her mother's fearsome presence and immovable opinions while also pointing out her large impact on Zauner.
Like Pledging Faith (Simile)
After playing an open mic, Zauner tells her mother over lunch that she wants to be a musician. She describes her mother as being displeased by this: “My mother looked around the restaurant nervously, as if I had just pledged faith to a satanic commune.” The simile is comedic, showing the overblown intensity of her mother's disapproval and depicting her dim view of the career path of musicians.
Like a Broken Plate (Simile)
Discussing her father, Zauner remembers how her mother once told her she couldn't share something about him because "it would ruin the way I saw my father, like a broken plate that you've glued back together and have to keep using, but all you can see in the crack." This comparison to a "broken plate" that has been "glued back together" gives a strong impression of how shattering the revelation of his affairs would be, as it describes how the plate could be reassembled but would essentially never be the same.
