Memory as a Flickering Flashlight (Metaphor)
In Flashlight, memory works like a flickering flashlight that never stays steady. The characters try to piece together what happened in their shared past, but their recollections brighten only certain moments while leaving others in deep shadow. This inconsistency shows how memory can guide yet also mislead. The flickering effect represents emotional interference — fear, guilt, and confusion interrupt the beam, making the truth unstable. Characters move through their own minds as though through a dark room, catching quick, unreliable glimpses. The metaphor emphasizes how the story’s central tension comes from navigating illumination that is partial, fragile, and easily distorted.
Childhood as a Broken Map (Metaphor)
Childhood in Flashlight functions like a broken map — an object meant for navigation but cracked, incomplete, and misleading. The characters’ early experiences left impressions that feel vivid but lack context, making their inner map difficult to follow. They return to these memories hoping for guidance, only to find dead ends, missing paths, and contradictory routes. The metaphor captures how children witness adult behavior without understanding its meaning, creating distorted “landmarks” in their minds. As adults, they interpret those fragments differently, revealing how the map shifts over time. This brokenness reflects the uncertainty and emotional instability that define their early relationships.
Emotion as an Overgrown Forest (Metaphor)
Emotions in Flashlight function like an overgrown forest—dense, tangled, and difficult to move through. The characters’ feelings often overwhelm their capacity for rational thought, especially when confronting memories that provoke shame or longing. The forest metaphor suggests both beauty and danger: emotions can provide depth and insight, but they can also trap people in confusion. Each character gets lost in their own emotional underbrush, unable to see a clear path toward understanding. The metaphor highlights how unresolved feelings from childhood continue to spread, like unchecked growth, shaping their adult perceptions in ways they cannot always recognize or control.
Truth is Like a Sudden Flash (Simile)
In the story, truth appears “like a sudden flash,” momentarily cutting through confusion with startling clarity. This simile emphasizes how revelations in Flashlight do not unfold slowly; instead, they strike the characters in abrupt moments that feel both illuminating and painful. Just as a flash of light can reveal a hidden figure in the dark, these moments expose emotional realities the characters have avoided. The brightness is brief, but once seen, it cannot be forgotten. The simile captures the story’s rhythm — long stretches of uncertainty interrupted by sharp, unavoidable recognition that forces characters to reevaluate their past.
Memories are Like Water Ripples (Simile)
Memories in the story are described as being “like ripples on water,” constantly shifting shape depending on emotion, time, and perspective. This simile shows how recollection in Flashlight is not stable; each retelling disturbs the surface, causing details to spread, blur, or distort. The characters revisit the same events but experience them differently, much like how ripples overlap and transform one another. This reflects how personal narratives evolve rather than remain fixed. The simile underscores one of the story’s themes: that remembering is an active, unstable process in which meaning changes every time it is touched.
Fear is Like a Closed Door (Simile)
Fear in Flashlight behaves “like a closed door,” sealing off parts of memory and emotion until the characters are ready—or forced—to confront them. This simile conveys how fear blocks access to understanding, much like a door that prevents someone from entering a room. The characters avoid certain truths because opening that metaphorical door risks pain, confusion, or loss of self-image. Yet the closed door also invites curiosity; the more it stays shut, the more pressure builds behind it. The simile emphasizes how fear shapes the characters’ choices, trapping them until they gather the courage to push through.
