Branches as bone, paper as heart and skin (Metaphor)
In Chapter 5, we see the following quote: “These branches will be my bones, I thought, and the paper will be my heart and skin, the places that feel everything” (p. 58). This is an excellent metaphor for the things that Cassia holds on to while she's away from Ky working in Central. The naturalness of the branches and familiar forbiddance of the papers will provide a second body of sorts to hold her together until she can see him again.
“The City of Oria looks like it got its teeth kicked out.” (Ky, p. 213. Simile.)
Ky likens the partially deconstructed white wall that once surrounded the stillzone to a less than full set of teeth. Ironically, the violent imagery he conjures up stands in opposition to the happy circumstances surrounding the wall's dismantling: the plague is getting better, the quarantine is no longer needed.
Baby birds waiting for food (Simile)
Ky says the following in Chapter 19: “I can see [the Oria residents’] faces turned up to watch us. They look like baby birds waiting for food.” This simile show the desperation of the residents in need of supplies and medicine, waiting helplessly for the parent-like Rising to save them.
Cassia's mother's voice as a seed (Metaphor)
When Cassia's mother begins to wake up after being still, Cassia says, “After a few days, she speaks, her voice a whisper, a little seed” (p. 452). This is an apt metaphor, as Cassia's mother has a great passion for plants and things that grow. She, like a plant, begins to grow again after being gone for so long.
Sails without boats (Simile)
As the Rising destroys the Gallery to reconstruct the stillzone wall, Cassia observes the "papers [floating] in puddles, like sails without boats" (p. 233). This is a very appropriate simile in that those papers were a form of progress for the people of Camas; without them, they will be very much like vessels unable to move.
