Pocket (Simile)
During the novel's very first scene, in which Connell and Marianne speak in her family's kitchen, he "presses his hands down slightly further into his pockets, as if trying to store his entire body in his pockets at once." This simile expresses Connell's baseline attitude, toward Marianne and toward the world in general, at the start of the story. He is deeply afraid of her, especially because he feels that she is able to discern information that he would prefer to keep hidden from others. In his social life as a whole, Connell prefers to remain as invisible as possible. Though he is popular and well-known, he tries to avoid unnecessary attention, and arguably uses clothing and other outward social signals as a way to disguise any potentially polarizing or striking attributes. He prioritizes moving smoothly through the world, drawing little notice.
Carcass (Simile)
When Marianne is dating Jamie, her body often "feels like a carcass, something immensely heavy and awful that she has to carry around." The simile expresses much of what Marianne finds appealing in her relationship with Jamie, even as it makes her deeply unhappy. When living with her family, Marianne learns to detach from her body and her physical sensations as a means of coping with abuse. This makes her feel lifeless and disgusted by her own physicality, to such an extent that, at points, she cannot bring herself to eat. With Jamie, she resumes this coping mechanism, finding a degree of comfort in the familiar despite its degradation.
Mathematician (Simile)
In a conversation between Connell and Marianne, Marianne's "eyes flick back and forth rapidly. When she does this, she looks like an expert mathematician performing calculations in her head." This comparison emphasizes Marianne's intelligence, which is of a logical, analytical kind. However, the context in which it appears is unexpected: she is discussing her boyfriend Jamie, and revealing deeply personal, upsetting information about their relationship. The simile, then, is a fitting reflection of Marianne's tendency to over-rationalize her own life, attempting to view it intellectually rather than to follow her instincts. Even in the midst of a highly intimate conversation, she takes the objective distance of a mathematician.
Film (Simile)
Connell experiences his trip through Europe as being "like a series of short films, screened only once, and afterwards he had a sense of what they were about but no exact memories of the plot." Connell enjoys his trip, but the experience of leisure travel without concern for money is so novel that he experiences it in a kind of thrilled daze. Even more tellingly, he feels as if he is viewing his own experiences from the outside. Throughout his time at Trinity, Connell has been surrounded by wealthier classmates, who have access to experiences that he does not. Even when he does access these experiences, he feels cut off from them, as if encountering them through the lens of fiction. Though this particular trip is an overwhelmingly positive experience, that sense of watching his life from the outside—or of being split into two people, one with access to money and one from a working-class home—is one cause of Connell's later crippling depression.
Gift (Simile)
At the end of the novel, as Marianne encourages Connell to leave her behind and pursue his writing in America, she muses that "he brought her goodness like a gift and now it belongs to her." This simile communicates the way in which Connell and Marianne's relationship has permanently changed each of them, altering them as individuals even when they are not actually together. Marianne feels that, while being with Connell initially offered her a happiness she had never had access to before, she has now learned to cultivate and appreciate such happiness even when they are apart. Because she now owns this "gift," she is comfortable parting from Connell.
