An outcast (Metaphor)
When Del bit her cousin, she was thinking that she “was biting myself off from everything”. The girl was sure that she did something unforgivable, that she was putting herself outside, “where no punishment would ever be enough”. Del was prepared to be an outcast, she thought “they would all hate” her and was grateful for this punishment, for to be an outcast meant freedom.
Confusion (Metaphor)
It seemed that Ada was the least popular person in Jubilee. Even drunks and cult members were more respected than she. Sometimes, just “by using a word like barbaric, she could make a pool of silence”. Jubilee was mostly inhabited by farmers, the society was uneducated, so they simply didn’t understand difficult terms Ada so loved to use.
A dessert person (Metaphor)
Uncle Bill was definitely a dessert person. Judging by the amount of sweets he bought and his own admission, his “sweet tooth has never gone sour”. Even cancer failed to change his eating habits. “Chocolate ice cream for dessert” was the main thing he needed.
Unhealthily pale (Simile)
Ada couldn’t forgive her mother for her terrible and rather hungry childhood. When she spoke about her, she usually described her as a religious fanatic. The woman usually wore “a dirty kimono or housedress, the back of the head with the thin hair pulled tight from the middle parting”. Her scalp was “unhealthily white”, “as white as marble, white as soap”.
Ill (Simile)
Del liked spending time in the local library. She enjoyed quietness and tranquility of the place. She was the only one visitor there, except the Librarian, Bella Phippen, “deaf as a stone” and “lame in one leg from polio”.
Tired (Simile)
Little Diane was often beaten by her own mother, so time she spent with Uncle Benny was time of calmness and rest. She liked to lie on Uncle Benny’s lap or fall asleep against his shoulder, “limp as spaghetti”. The little girl knew that he wouldn’t harm her in any way, so she could relax in his presence.
