Terror
The narrator uses a simile to compares Morag to a cockroach. The narrator notes: “Morag, terrified, scuttles back to the kitchen like a cockroach–she is a cockroach; she feels like one, running, scuttling.” The direct comparison of Morag to a cockroach is an allusion to how terrified she was. In this sense, the simile becomes a representation of Morag’s terror.
The coiled guts
The imagery of coiled guts is enhanced through the writer’s employment of a language in which familiarity is heightened. Comparing coiled guts to coiled scarlet snakes enhances the reader’s imagery of the same. The writer notes: “And so, of course Morag does not know how much of their guts lie coiled like scarlet snakes across the sheets.”
The imagery of the drooping tongue
A drooping tongue is a common phenomenon among dogs as a way of regulating their body temperatures. Laurence’s comparison of Logan’s drooping tongue to that of a dog thus enhances imagery. She notes: “His tongue droops out like a dog’s tongue.”
The shape of Cleopatra’s boat
The shape of Cleopatra’s boat is emphasized through the use of a simile. This imagery is made prominent through the simile that compares it to a giant bird. Laurence notes: “Cleopatra, drifting down the Nile River in a boat shaped like a giant bird (coloured picture in the book) while her slaves fanned her with fans made out of pink, green, blue feathers.”
Millie’s miniature and light stature
“Millie is old (well, older, anyway, as you might say), and she is tiny and light like a dandelion seed, very skinny legs (silk stockings, always, never lisle).”
The comparison of Millie’s light stature to a dandelion seed emphasizes her minimal weight while also evoking imagery.
