Mammy's Boy
The metaphor of mammy’s boy has been employed for Ousmane by Ouleymaton. Ousmane belonged to a Muslim family and his father was a devout Muslim. Ousmane used to value his relationships especially with his mother. He was an obedient son so Ouleymaton calls her mammy’s boy owing to his unflinching obedience towards his mother. Ouleymaton rejects his love proposal on this basis and Ousmane decides to work hard in order to become rich and successful. After marrying Mireille, who was the daughter of a French diplomat, Ousmane gives away his ideals of success and change. He starts getting assimilated in African culture and becomes once again a mammy’s boy. His mother disproves his relationship with Mireille because she thinks that the foreigner girl has entranced her son. On his mother’s insistence, Ousmane taints his relationship with Mireille and marries Ouleymaton because she was a girl from their own culture, and she was her mother’s choice as well.
Infanticide
The infanticide metaphorically describes the death of Mireille’s own romantic ideals, aspirations and her love for her husband. She was a lively girl who never thought about getting hurt. She was insulated to pain because her parents fulfilled her desires since her childhood and her view about world was of an optimist. She had not seen the horrific side of life so after getting acquainted with the evils that befell on her, she gave up on her life instead to fighting for her survival. The intense abhorrence for the African culture of misogyny and polygamy compelled her to kill her aspirations which metaphorically stand in the form of her child.
Servant
The simile of a servant has been used for Mireille because her mother in law wanted her to obey her orders and work for her like a servant. The traditions of Senegalese expect her to be a subservient wife and a docile or submissive daughter in law. Yaye complains to Ousmane that Mireille is not performing her duties towards the family and she is not getting comfortable with her. Yaye says, "A white woman does not enrich a family. She impoverishes it by undermining its unity." Yaye compels her son to marry a woman from their own culture just because Mireille does not fulfil her expectations of working like a servant. Ousmane also rejects Mireille’s bourgeois lifestyle owing to its contradiction with his traditional upbringing.
