"Even if hundreds of people are not gathered like flies around the hole the way they used to be" (11) (Simile)
The Officer reminisces about the days in the past when the punishment of a condemned person was watched by crowds of enthusiastic people. He comments, "And at the end, the body still keeps falling in that incredibly soft flight into the pit, even if hundreds of people are not gathered like flies around the hole the way they used to be" (11) The simile provides an excellent visual image of just how popular the punishments used to be: they were a spectacle, a time for the community to gather together in curiosity and wonder. However, the simile also suggests just how far removed the Officer is from understanding the humanity of the people who live in the penal colony. That has already been apparent in the way the Officer described the apparatus, but here in his comparison of the people to flies he unwittingly showcases his inability to see them as actual human beings. As a representative of the system of power, the officer reveals a disconcerting, albeit unsurprising, perspective.
The Harrow (Metaphor)
In the text the Harrow is the part of the apparatus that inscribes the law that the condemned person is accused of violating onto their body. But a harrow is actually an agricultural tool, "a cultivating tool set with spikes, teeth, or disks and used primarily for breaking up and smoothing the soil" (Merriam Webster). The Old Commandant and the Officer referring to the part of the apparatus as The Harrow is a metaphor, because it compares the breaking up of the soil to the breaking up of the body. It is an invasive, brutal, and highly regimented process that renders the land pliable at the same time as it denudes it of its essence. Similarly, the Condemned Man's body is inscribed, broken, and denuded of its essence. To take this metaphor even deeper, the harrow for the land opens it up to seeds, and the harrow for the apparatus opens up the body for the "seeds" of the law to be sown.
"My machine's as filthy as a pigsty" (9) (Simile)
The Officer is frustrated that his machine is as filthy as a pigsty when the Condemned Man throws up on it after putting the stub of felt in his mouth. The use of the term "pigsty" makes the reader think of animals, underscoring that condemned persons are treated more like animals than people when they are sentenced to death without a chance to defend themselves.
Condemned Man's "dog-like resignation" (Simile)
The Traveller notes the "dog-like" resignation of the Condemned Man and how "it looked as if one could set him free to roam around the slopes and would only have to whistle at the start of the execution for him to return" (1). This image of a slavish, bestial, infantile man reveals the degrading conditions at this penal colony. The man is a peon, a subject. He is treated as if he has no worth, and it is unsurprising that the State will take complete advantage of him.
The Officer's Appearance (Metaphor)
The Traveller observes the Officer closely, finding him "all the more admirable in his tight tunic weighed down with epaulettes and festooned with braid, ready to go on parade..." (2). On the surface, this description is just an objective statement that the Officer is wearing epaulettes with braids. However, the Traveller continues with his observation and uses a metaphor of a military man on parade. This allows readers to access more of the Officer's character than a simple description does. It is now possible to see him in the mind's eye as stiffly upright, serious, covered with the signs and symbols of his position and degree of authority. Yet, the fact that this is a parade, a mere ceremonial affair, adds to the sense that the Officer's power is more limited than he would care to admit and that what happens here is more spectacle than anything else.
