Michael is an Animal (Metaphor)
When Jojo is celebrating his birthday, Leonie receives a call from Parchman. She hears the voice of Michael, and she learns that he is being released from prison in just a few days. Jojo describes his feelings in this moment when he explains, "Michael is an animal on the other end of the telephone behind a fortress of concrete and bars." This metaphor reinstates the motif of animals in the novel. In this example, Jojo underscores the inhumanity of the American prison system. He also reiterates his distant, impersonal relationship he has with his own father.
Leonie's Pregnancy (Simile)
Jojo recalls Leonie's pregnancy with Kayla. He describes her excitement in picking out Kayla's name and writing it on her new carseat. Jojo compares his mother's pregnancy to looking like she "had a Nerf basketball shoved down her shirt." While Jojo is very mature and narrates with an authoritative tone, it is important for us to remember that his chapters are told from the perspective of a thirteen-year-old boy. This simile demonstrates Jojo's youth and innocent outlook.
Mam's Cancer (Metaphor)
At the beginning of the story, we learn that Mam has late-stage cancer that causes her to be bed-bound. When Jojo describes her illness at the beginning of the novel, he explains that her chemotherapy treatment "done dried her up and hallowed her out the way the sun and the air do to water oaks." This is one of numerous references to the ecology of the American gulf coast, where the story takes place, and the description of Mam's sickness in these terms underscores the connection the novel makes between human characters and the natural world more broadly. In addition, it foreshadows her "return to the earth" (i.e., her death) at the novel's conclusion.
Given's Murderers (Simile)
In Leonie's first chapter of narration, she describes the tragic death of her brother, Given. After Given was shot by Michael's cousin, he was left on the ground to die. Leonie tells the reader that all the boys involved quickly fled the scene: "they scattered like roaches in the light." By comparing the culprits to roaches, Leonie highlights the inhumanness of the boys' actions. The light symbolizes truth, and the boy's crime was finally exposed.
Leonie's Elation (Simile)
When Michael calls Leonie from Parchman to say that he is coming home, Leonie feels incredibly excited. The narrator describes how "her insides [were] like a full ditch ridden with a thousand tadpoles." This feeling of "fullness" indicates that, by contrast, Leonie has passed Michael's time in jail feeling empty and incomplete. The image of tadpoles symbolizes that a sense of growth/rebirth is coming into Leonie's life.
