The British (Simile)
Like any society, British people probably do not have a really good idea of how they come across to foreigners. No matter how much the stereotype of a stiff upper lip pervades media representation, it is difficult to imagine that they full grasp just how accurate this stereotype seems to outsiders: “England is a silent country; people are taught to bottle up their feelings and screw them up tight, like the illicit gin her parents drank at home. If you made a mistake and uncorked the bottle, the gin would bubble out" (97).
Adah’s Guide to Life (Simile)
Adah’s philosophical outlook and guide to life comes early in the text. She does not say it out loud and instead merely thinks it to herself, but it guides her conduct thenceforth: “She remembered what she had told her mother-in-law the very night before. We shall only stay a year and six months. The poor woman had believed her. That was life, she said to herself. Be as cunning as a serpent and as harmless as a dove" (34). These two animals are effective ways to convey the dual sides of Adah's behavior, both of them being classic symbols of wiliness and peace, respectively.
Romance (Simile)
Almost the entire novel features Adah trying to come to terms with her marriage, and here she uses a simile to express her feelings: "Adah, from the day of her registry marriage, had seen the romantic side of her life being shattered, like broken glass, about her" (28). The simile depicts her marriage as fragile and then destroyed, incapable of being put back together again.
New Lodgings (Simile)
Adah is thrilled to be in England, but she isn't quite ready to be a second-class citizen and to have to live in rundown lodgings with people she considers inferior to her. Yet, Adah will do what is best to survive, and Emecheta writes, "She swallowed it all, just like a nasty pill" (38).
Francis's Mind (Metaphor)
Adah is disappointed to see she is a second-class citizen, but she is also disappointed to learn Francis has adopted that idea as well: "Francis's mind was a fertile ground in which such attitudes could grow and thrive" (58). He has decided his Blackness makes him inferior, and acts accordingly. Adah uses this metaphor to suggest that Francis has an impressionable mind and is incapable of thinking better of himself.
