Book
The metaphor of a cold and empty book has been employed by Marina for the journal which she starts keeping on the commands of her English teacher. He asks his students to write about their in diaries. Marina thinks that she would not be able to write about her life as she was afraid of sharing her secrets. She doesn't talk to anyone owing to her traumatic past so she consider the idea of keeping a journal as futile. She doesn't want to examine her past and the experiences which she underwent so she says, “it would stay a cold and empty book, with no secrets.”
Freak
Marina uses the metaphors 'Freak' and 'mute' for herself because of her low self esteem. The description of herself demonstrate that she thinks of herself as physically and emotionally paralyzed person. She was afraid of speaking to others because she had trust issues and the trauma of her past doesn't allow her to share her feelings or secrets with others. She remains quiet so she observes and judges the girls in the school. She says, “I sat under a tree outside the court and watched.” The mute Marina tries to find the emotions of others through their behaviors and she was aware of the intentions of others towards her. Her emotional state makes her self pitying and vulnerable. She says, “I make people uncomfortable. The kind ones get angry because their kindness doesn't work. The unkind ones get angry because they think I'm attacking them.”
Poems are Dangerous
The little girl was afraid of showing her emotions so she was reluctant to write in her diary and she considers poetry as dangerous. She says, “Poems are dangerous,” because in her view they makes a person vulnerable and people would take pity on her after reading about her emotions through the poems. She keeps things inside but she feels everything. She says, “my father had stopped coming to watch me…it just seemed like everything had changed.” Her tragedy gets catharsis through writing which she calls as dangerous.
Prison
Marina realizes that her silence was not always a protective shield. Sometimes, it halts her from connecting with others. She has metaphorically described her silence as “silence always my fortress, sometimes my prison.” Deep inside she doesn't want to be isolated but the fear of vulnerability compels her to keep her mouth shut. Marina wanted to befriend her class fellows and to feel the emotions of love but the prison of silence had handicapped her. Her silence assists her in keeping the trauma of her past to herself but it also deteriorates her personally. She becomes a coward who doesn't want to face anyone. She becomes a prisoner of her past who keeps herself behind the bars of the prison of silence.
Radioactive Cloud
The simile of a radioactive cloud has been used for Marina's father. As Marina hates her father so she says, “he’s too powerful still, like a radioactive cloud finding his dark way into everything." The words demonstrate her toxic relationship with her father and it was because of his father that she becomes quiet and isolated. She belongs to a broken family so she thinks that all families are broken. She doesn't trust people and says, “Don't Trust Them! Look Out! They Hate you! They Hate Everyone! They Hate each other!” After living with Mr. Lindell's family she realizes that he was a kind father and she says, “there such a kind and loving family, I can hardly believe it.” Eventually she changes her perspective regarding her father and asks Mrs. Ransome for his address. She says, “it’s like rolling a rock downhill, once you rolled it, all you can do is watch.”
