Boxer Simile
"T. stood with his back to the rubble like a boxer knocked groggy against the ropes."
When Mike tells the boys that Mr Thomas has come back to the house early, it is something of a reality check. They want out of the destruction project and Summers is the first to raise the rebellion. When he shoves Trevor he seems dazed and his rebellion seems also dazing to the ringleader. He seems to be in some kind of trance with the destruction and the carrying out of his plan and is as dazed and groggy as if Summers had punched him squarely in the jaw in the middle of a bout.
Burglary Noises Simile
"Why should burglars engage in what sounded more and more llike a stealthy form of carpentry?"
Mr Thomas is locked in the outhouse and can only try to discern what is going on by the noises he is hearing. He can tell that someone, probably a group of people, are in the house doing something nefarious. He imagines that a group of burglars have put a couple of the boys up to locking him up whilst they burglarize his home. However, the noises he hears are not burglary noises, things like the pulling out of a drawer, perhaps the breaking of a window or glass cabinet. The noises are more like sawing, hammering and furtive woodworking.
Gray Ash Simile
"The gray ash floated above them and fell on their heads like age."
This simile refers to the physical signs of aging; the dust, being gray, rested on the boys' hair, making them appear aged and gray-haired, much older than their years.
Gray Ash Metaphor
"The gray ash floated above them and fell on their heads like age."
The falling of the ashes and the physical appearance of aging is also metaphorical of what is happening to the boys during the destruction of the house. Their previous antics, while wholly annoying, had been strictly the pranks of kids. They caused trouble, mess and aggravation but generally no real harm. The ash that falls on their heads and gives them the impression of age also shows us that with this descent into actual harm and life-wrecking damage, they have moved from childhood pranks to serious adult offenses, challenging what they perceive as the status quo.
Top Hat Simile
"The house had stood there with dignity betwen the bombsites like a man in a top hat."
This simile refers to the way in which the house was the lone beacon of resistance to the onslaught of German bombings. Before the Blitz it was the last house on the street; now it is the only house, standing proud and aloof like a man wearing a top hat.
Bombsite Metaphor
The lot where the boys met every day was the site of the last bomb that was dropped in the first blitz. This is a metaphor for the house that the boys destroy; it survived the last bomb of the last blitz, but is now being destroyed by the first bomb of the blitz that the boys are carrying out, the first bomb in the war between the classes that is starting to erupt within the nation.
