Adeline's wandering
During the school holidays, Adeline, the narrator is not allowed to go home nor accept any invitations that she had received from her friends. As such, she is forced to stay behind in the boarding school all by herself after everyone has left for the holidays since the nuns did not know what to do with her. In the school, Adeline uses a simile in which she directly compares her wandering about from one classroom to another to that of a ghost:
"I wandered like a ghost from classroom to classroom, spending much time reading fairy tales in the library"
The lighting at the cinema
During Father and Niang's time away in Tianjin to reclaim their businesses, Ye Ye takes the family to the movies. The narrator describes the lighting on the walls of the cinema plastered with photographs of film stars and uses a simile to directly compare the lighting to that of a palace:
"...the film stars were posted on the walls outside the cinema which at night was lit up like a palace"
The scar on Adeline's wrist
After Adeline injures her hand which later heals, she describes the effect of the scar using a simile. The direct comparison of the scar to the memory of a beloved plays the role of conveying to the reader the effect that the scar had on her, how the memory of the bite of the Roman shepherd stayed with her. She says:
"The wound on my wrist healed, but the scar lingered like a memorial to a beloved fallen friend, accompanying me wherever I went, whatever I did"
Adeline's squirming
After Niang notices a silver dollar in Adeline's bag, she lies and squirms in order to not give away Aunt Baba who had given her the dollar. Adeline uses a simile to directly compare how she felt during her avoidance of answering the question to the wiggling of a worm:
"I lied and squirmed and felt like a worm. I would not, could not, implicate Aunt Baba..."
The effect of the news of the arranged marriage
Adeline uses a simile to compare the effect of the news that she was going to be married off at seventeen. In order to convey the intensity and suddenness of the news, she directly compares them to a thunderbolt:
"Their words were like a thunderbolt to me and I felt terrified, miserable and at a loss as to what to do or think"
