Like a Dark Fortune Cookie
Fortune cookies were nowhere near as omnipresent at the time of publication as they are now. It would be kind of cool to think the author was engaging in intentional irony by having her white female protagonist in this story drive to a philosophy that sounds like it came from a fortune cookie, but the history of the popular dessert with the philosophical filling strongly suggests that is unlikely. Nevertheless, the modern reader cannot but help make the association:
“The happiness of the man who loves me is more to me than the approval or disapproval of those who my dark days left me to die like a dog.”
Culture Clash
A striking metaphorical image is conveyed by one character to another when describing the culture clash between Chinese and Americans in something as simple as a physician listening to a heartbeat through his stethoscope:
"It was like preparing a lamb for slaughter…The modesty of generations of maternal ancestors was crucified as I rolled down the neck of her silk tunic."
Internal Struggle
“Its Wavering Image” opens by informing the reader that Pan is half-white and half-Chinese. Just like the author. This duality of identity informs many of the stories in the collection, but one particular metaphor sums up the internal struggle more than any other:
“it seemed at times as if her white self must entirely dominate and trample under foot her Chinese.”
Character Description
The power of the comparison made through simile to boil down the personality traits of a character is put on exemplary display throughout the collection, but a schoolteacher in the story “The Gift of Little Me” is the recipient of top honors.
"Though her smile is as sweet as honey, her heart is like a razor."
Setting
The author also illustrates the efficiency of metaphorical language to transform a common setting into a portrait of something much more aesthetically pleasing. She uses language to paint not just colors, but the gentle shadings and subtle hues of reality:
“The sun hovered over the Olympic mountains like a great, golden red-bird with dark purple wings, its long tail of light trailing underneath in the waters of Puget Sound.”
