Laughter
The author uses imagery to enhance his description of a comically awkward moment. "Ed Morgan’s face was becoming redder and redder. I felt my eyes begin to water, and to keep from letting any weird sounds come out, I started biting the inside of my mouth." This imagery provides a visceral description of the difficulty of trying not to laugh at a situation that is embarrassing for another person. Ed's face is getting redder and the author's eyes are watering as they attempt to hold back laughter directed toward a Presidential Cabinet nominee. He had accidentally walked into a closet and remained there far longer than necessary or expected.
The Oval Office
The author describes the decoration of the Oval Office under Pres. Richard Nixon as an exercise in uninviting austerity. "A large eagle was woven into the center of the blue rug, and another was emblazoned in the plaster of the ceiling. Two couches faced each other antagonistically in front of an empty fireplace." This visual imagery serves to underscore the conclusion that the author eventually arrives at as the purpose of this starkness. He concludes that the use of eagle imagery and the positioning of the couches served to intimidate visitors with the imperial power of the Presidency.
G. Gordon Liddy
One of—if not the most—notorious figures associated with the Watergate scandal was a paranoid, right-wing extremist named G. Gordon Liddy. "He sported a bushy mustache and moved with a forceful, purposeful energy. When we shook hands, his grip was vise-like." This visual imagery efficiently describes what Liddy is like throughout the story. He was an authentic icon of toxic masculinity in which deep insecurities masqueraded as hyperbolic displays of strength and intensity.
The President's Men
Despite the famous title of a book and subsequent movie, it really was not all the President's men whose lives were completely upturned by getting sucked into the Watergate whirlpool. Krogh makes this clear through the use of familiar metaphorical imagery when he admits that only "a few others and I were skating on ice slowly melting from the heat of the Watergate investigation." The comparison here is to the slowly simmering evolution of the scandal from a "third-rate burglary" into a comprehensive cover-up.
