Foreshadowing
The novel begins with metaphorical imagery. "The wind is about to take on visible form. As though the raindrops suspended in the air, held breath before the plunge, are on the cusp of trembling down, glittering like jewels." The story begins with an unidentified second-person narrator observing that the weather looks rainy. The robust use of both similes and direct metaphor to situate weather conditions foreshadow the multiple perspective storytelling structure of the book. It subtly suggests that subjective perception will play a significant role.
Darkness
Darkness pops up as metaphor in the bulk of fiction in the modern world. It is the metaphor which has come to define the modern age. "The world darkens, like electric bulbs going out one by one." This particular use of darkness speaks directly to the reality of existence. The longer one manages to survive, the more "bulbs" one lives to see going out. The simile here suggests that lightness in our lives is provided by the people with whom life is shared. Darkness grows with each new loss of a person from that life.
Censorship
The narrator is writing about how one of the surest signs of living under an oppressive government is its need to censor information to which citizens might be exposed. "These saturated pages have left the manuscript bloated and distended, water-logged flotsam washed up on some beach." The manuscript in question has been undergoing an extensive series of government review. The metaphor illustrates how turning creativity over to oppressive bureaucrats leaves a creative work as useless as trash washing up on a beach.
Humanity
This novel is a story consumed with questions about the state of humanity. "Is the dignity that we cling to nothing but self-delusion, masking from ourselves this single truth: that each one of us is capable of being reduced to an insect, a ravening beast, a lump of meat?" As its most nihilistic depths, the outlook on the state of humanity sinks very low. The bestial metaphors comparing humans to lesser creatures is a longstanding trope. Humanity has traditionally gained its sense of superiority through such comparisons.
The Moon
"She told you that the moon was called ‘the eye of the night’." The narrator is recalling a moment from his youth. The speaker is a pretty girl whose imagination has been fueled by poetry. The narrator recalls, however, be filled with fear by this metaphorical image of an all-seeing eye. It is another illustration if the significant role played by individual perception in the story.
