The Cold Burn like a vast hive
The narrator uses a simile to compare the way in which his own symptom, The Cold Burn covered his body to a vast hive. This simile enhances a deeper understanding of the scene: "I had received minute amounts of morphine that could not possibly account for my lack of the more severe withdrawal symptoms such as leg and stomach cramps, fever and my own special symptom, The Cold Burn, like a vast hive covering the body and rubbed with menthol."
Spine like a frozen hydraulic jack
In his expression of how a junky wants to be cold, a simile is used to bring out how a junky wants to be inside and sit around with a spine like a frozen hydraulic jack. This simile also facilitates imagery. He says: "But he [the junky] wants The Cold like he wants His Junk – NOT OUTSIDE where it does him no good but INSIDE so he can sit around with a spine like a frozen hydraulic jack... his metabolism approaching Absolute ZERO."
His face lights up like a pinball machine
After the narrator tells the boy that he is one of them, a simile is used to express the way in which his face lit up to a pinball machine. The narrator says: "His face lights up like a pinball machine, with stupid, pink effect."
Face torn like a broken film
The narrator uses a simile to bring out the way in which the junky's face was torn. The simile enhances imagery as the reader is able to imagine his face, torn like a broken film: "He stood there in elongated courtroom shadow, his face torn like a broken film by lusts and hungers of larval organs [...]"
The flesh came up like wax
The narrator uses a simile to express how the flesh peeled off when he grabbed the Rube's thigh. This enhances imagery: "When I grabbed the Rube's thigh the flesh came up like wax and stayed there, and a slow drop of pus oozed out the hole."
