"Framed like that, a hunt became a ceremony." (Metaphor)
The old man teaches Frank to give thanks to an animal when he kills it. Frank begins to pray before he goes out to hunt and when he returns with game. The hunt is described as a ceremony because it is a process of reflection, and because the act of giving thanks to an animal is an Indigenous teaching the old man passes down to Frank.
Varmints (Metaphor)
The first time Frank meets Eldon, there are varmints killing the chickens on the farm. Frank later asks the old man why Eldon drinks so much, and the old man responds "to keep the varmints away." The varmints, while literal in their attacking the chickens, are a metaphor when used to refer to Eldon's past. The varmints can be understood as Eldon's "inner demons" that plague him, and the reason Eldon drinks.
"'Shh,' he said again. 'Hush.' Like a benediction." (Simile)
Frank dreams his father meets his mother again right before Eldon dies. When Frank hears his father pass away in the night, Frank holds Eldon's body and puts two fingers against Eldon's lips. He repeats the words "Shh" and "Hush," and the repetition of these words becomes like a benediction, or blessing, for Eldon. Frank watches his father leave the world, and gives Eldon something akin to a blessing. While Frank is unsure if he forgives Eldon, he does offer Eldon a benediction at his passing.
"His father's face was slack, the skin hanging off the bones like a loose tent." (Simile)
Over the course of the novel, Eldon nears closer and closer to death. His body begins to reflect the imminence of his death as it begins to decay. This simile demonstrates the physical wear Eldon's years of alcoholism wrought on his body. It also expresses how Eldon's body is dying before Frank's eyes.
Bruises as Blooms (Simile)
When Eldon first notices bruises around his mother's neck, he thinks of them as blooms: "...the bruise sat in a ring around her throat. Purple. Like small blooms." The perverse comparison between flowers and bruises around the neck expresses the perversity of domestic violence, where a partner pledges to love the other partner but also physically harms them.
