A dysfunctional marriage
Bennet and his wife have barely time for each other as each is preoccupied with their own lives and work. As an emphasis on how these two's lives did not seem to intersect, the narrator uses a simile in which their lives are said to be parallel like railroads. In this way, the perception of this marriage as dysfunctional is evoked: "Something seemed very wrong in our marriage. Our lives ran parallel like railroad tracks."
The idea of the zipless fuck
An emphasis on how clothes were quickly got rid of in the narrator's fantasy of a zipless fuck is emphasized through the use of multiple similes. In the first instance, the zippers are said to fall away like rose petals, whereas underwear blew off like dandelion fluff. The imagery is emphasized via similes.
"Zipless because when you came together, zippers fell away like rose petals, underwear blew off in one breath like dandelion fluff."
The build up of anger
The conception of the anger building up within the narrator is enhanced via a simile. The imagery is enhanced via a comparison to steam building up in a pressure cooker. The narrator notes: "I could feel the anger gather inside my head like steam in a pressure cooker."
"…like a train."
The imagery of the smoke from the Englishman's pipe is enhanced through the narrator's employment of a simile to compare it to a train. The narrator notes: "I followed the smoke from the Englishman's pipe down the steps and across the street. He puffed along like a train, the pipe seeming to propel him."
The beer steins and the ice buckets
The narrator's father designs beer steins whose imagery is enhanced through a simile that compares them to ice buckets, whereas the ice buckets he makes are compared to beer steins. The use of these similes enhances imagery. The narrator states:
"My father was designing ice buckets which looked like beer steins and beer steins which looked like ice buckets."
The leather strap
The patent-leather chest strap's effect as it zings the air is made comprehensible through its comparison to a snapped rubber band. The narrator notes: "[…] his red patent-leather chest strap zings the air like a snapped rubber band."
