The zinc ring
Malone is a mental health patient and a murder convict who has absolutely no regrets about his actions. As he remembers the few possessions including those of less value that he had preserved, he uses a simile to bring out the shining imagery of the zinc ring. Specifically, he says that the “zinc ring shone like silver.”
The contrast
The contrast between the window and the wall is brought out, in Malone’s perception, through the use of a simile in which it is compared to the edge of an abyss. In this way, the simile enhances the reader’s perception of how deep and profound the disparity between the window and the wall is: “I can scarcely even see the window-pane, or the wall forming with it so sharp a disparity that it often looks like the edge of an abyss.”
The tossing of Malone’s bed in the air
Malone’s mental health is on the edge. As brought out in the work, at times, Malone hallucinates or rather imagines that his bed is caught up in the air. A simile is used to compare the ease with which Malone’s bed is stirred and tossed in the air to a straw by the eddies: “sometimes my bed is caught up into the air and tossed like a straw by the swirling eddies, and I in it.” The use of this simile facilitates imagery.
The unutterable
Malone says that things which were not particularly his business were unutterable. In enhancing the reader’s perception of their unutterability, the narrator uses a simile which enhances imagery and thus appeals to the reader: “And it was, though more unutterable, like the crumbling away of two little heaps of finest sand, or dust, or ashes, of unequal size…”
The rustle of the coat
The narrator uses vivid descriptions to accurately paint an image of his characters in the reader’s subconscious mind. In particular, the vivid descriptions characterized by the use of similes enhance imagery and thus promote appeal. A simile is used in the comparison of the sounds made by the coat to the rustle of a train: “tails of this coat literally sweep the ground and rustle like a train, when he walks.”
