Isolation as a Cracked Window (Metaphor)
In Desai’s story, loneliness functions like a cracked window—something that should offer a view of the world but instead distorts everything beyond it. Sonia and Sunny look outward in search of belonging, yet the fractures in their emotional lives warp their perception, making connection feel out of reach. The crack symbolizes the damage caused by migration, alienation, and unshared burdens. They see the world, but not clearly; they sense warmth outside but cannot feel it. The window remains a fragile boundary between them and others, reminding the reader that their loneliness is not caused by physical solitude but by emotional displacement and the inability to fully cross into shared experience.
Their Marriage as a Hollow Room (Metaphor)
Sonia and Sunny’s relationship resembles a hollow room—structurally intact but emptied of warmth, echoing with every small movement. Though they occupy the same life, the emotional space between them feels bare, amplifying silence rather than comfort. The hollowness reflects unmet expectations: the dream of an intimate partnership replaced by routines lacking true presence. The metaphor highlights how relationships can degrade not through conflict, but through absence, where love is not destroyed but simply evaporates. Their shared environment becomes something they inhabit separately, a room where the walls remain but the meaning has drained out, leaving only stillness and emotional distance.
Migration as an Endless Corridor (Metaphor)
Migration in the story operates like an endless corridor—long, dim, and stretching beyond what Sonia and Sunny can see. They walk forward because they must, yet each step feels uncertain, revealing only tiny fragments of what lies ahead. This corridor symbolizes the perpetual displacement of immigrants: the sense of moving toward possibility while being haunted by what was left behind. The corridor never opens into a room of belonging; instead, it loops through confusion, fractured identity, and longing. Their loneliness grows in this space, where progress is ambiguous and the future remains a distant, unreachable door they continue chasing.
Their Lives Are Like Parallel Train Tracks (Simile)
Sonia and Sunny grow to live “like parallel train tracks,” always moving forward yet never truly intersecting. Their routines align, their responsibilities run side by side, but their emotional worlds never meet. The simile emphasizes the quiet tragedy of their relationship—closeness without connection, proximity without intimacy. Even when they share the same physical space, their thoughts head in different directions, shaped by private disappointments and silent sacrifices. Like tracks that seem close but are fixed apart, their lives form a structure that appears stable from the outside yet is defined by separation. Their loneliness persists not because they are alone, but because they are together without touching.
Loneliness is Like a Heavy Coat (Simile)
Loneliness in the story feels “like a heavy coat” wrapped around Sonia and Sunny—warm at first, offering protection, but eventually suffocating and burdensome. They carry it everywhere: to work, through their apartment, into moments that should feel joyful but instead feel muted. The coat symbolizes the emotional weight they cannot shed—cultural expectations, personal insecurities, and isolation in an unfamiliar country. Even when they try to remove it by seeking connection, it clings to them, shaped by old fears and unspoken thoughts. The simile highlights how loneliness becomes both shield and trap, shaping their identities more than they admit.
Expectations Are Like Fragile Glass (Simile)
The expectations Sonia and Sunny hold—about marriage, success, belonging—are “like fragile glass,” beautiful but easily shattered. Each disappointment acts like a crack, spreading quietly until the entire structure threatens to fall apart. Their hopes for a certain kind of life in a new country break under the pressure of reality: isolation, unfulfilled ambitions, and emotional fatigue. Once the glass fractures, it cannot be restored to its original clarity, mirroring how their early optimism becomes clouded with regret. The simile underscores the vulnerability of immigrant dreams and the delicate nature of relationships built under cultural and emotional strain.
