The reading menace
Reading is something that Matthew doesn’t enjoy, as he is often concerned about reading things the wrong way. He has to go through every detail, often reading the same page over and over again. In this regard a simile is used to emphasize the difficulty that Matthew has reading, comparing the process to a battle: “…reading sometimes felt like a battle with the voice.”
Matthew’s nodding
In the library, Matthew has to wait for an hour for the librarian to show up so he could borrow a book. His throat becomes too rigid to talk such that he only nods when he is asked how he was doing. The writer enhances imagery of the nod when he says: “When the librarian asked how he was doing, he nodded vaguely like a deaf person.”
The friendship
Amy and Matthew’s friendship is highly unpredictable seeing as both are dealing with their own issues, Amy with cerebral palsy and Matthew with an obsessive disorder. As a result of Matthew’s constantly changing and unpredictable behavior, the friendship between them is compared to a roller coaster: “For AMY, BEING FRIENDS with Matthew felt like being on a roller coaster.” The simile enables imagery.
Matthew’s firing brain
The writer uses a simile to compare the spark of weird thoughts in Matthew’s brain to a seizure. As a result of OCD, random thoughts and fears raid his mind, and the use of the simile enables an understanding of how these happen: “Something fired in his brain, like a seizure of panic.”
Jealousy
Matthew doesn’t take too well the news that Amy had applied to Yale. He wonders why she would to attend a college so far from home. As a result of jealousness, he feels his stomach churn: “He felt like a tennis ball was bouncing around in his stomach.” This can be argued as his reaction to the fact that Amy despite her condition was willing to try being independent, something that he was unable to do.
