Music
Paul escapes into music as a way of dealing with the deterioration of the marriage of his parents and the quite obviously dilution of the love they once expressed toward each other. At one point, his father speaks metaphorically about his own passion for photography by suggesting it is an artistic pursuit all about secrets. Paul’s reply is also framed in figurative language:
“Music is like you touch the pulse of the world. Music is always happening, and sometimes you get to touch it for a while, and when you do you know that everything’s connected to everything else.”
Physicality
A particularly interesting use of simile to describe the physicality of a character is used in reference to the figures in a significant photograph; one not taken by Paul’s father, but in which he appears as a little boy:
“…a ramshackle house fastened to the side of a hill. In front of it stood four people: a woman in a dress to her calves, wearing an apron, her hands clasped in front of her. Wind blew a stray strand of hair across her face. A man, gaunt, bent like a comma, stood next to her, holding a hat to his chest.”
The Plot, in a Metaphorical Nutshell
While thinking of his son, Paul’s father gets lost in his memories and arrives at a moment of clarity and understanding in which his interior thoughts spell out the entire epicenter of the narrative in a metaphorical terms;
“He had handed their daughter to Caroline Gill and the secret had taken root; it had grown and blossomed in the center of his family.”
Suzy Homemaker
Norah takes exception to this metaphorical term meaning the perfect little homemaker applied in a sense somewhat akin to being a “Stepford wife.” As her marriage begins falling apart, she commences upon a new spirit of independence which takes her out of the home and allows her to flourish in the business world, indicating not only that she was never really happy being one, but was never really a little Suzy Homemaker at all.
Lexington
The story is set in Lexington, Kentucky and this particular setting is subtly essential to the narrative. The blizzard which opens the story and sets in motion the series of events which drive the story is notably described as unusual for the town. Later, metaphor will come into play which connects the geological substructure of the topography to the psychological substructure of the population:
“David always said Lexington was like the limestone on which it was built: layers of stratification, nuances of being and belonging, your place in the hierarchy fixed in stone long ago.”
