The simile of the snakebite
The author compares the narrator’s mother darting to the snakebite when he writes, “Unfortunately, my mother overheard; and darted, quick as a snakebite.” After she overheard the conversation, she could not wait to dart, and she did that as quickly as the snakebite. The simile shows the level of irritation the narrator's mother felt.
Swan-like neck
The narrator compares his grandmother’s neck when she was young to the swan when he says, “Epifania fell into a useless frenzy of scratching and swatting, lunging around her curvaceous teak boat bed, often spilling the tea on the lacy cotton bedclothes, or on her white muslin nightgown with the high ruffled collar that concealed her once swan-like, but now corrugate, neck."
The simile of Epifania
Epifania's flapping and howling are compared to the broken wand and weird sister respectively when the author writes, "Epifania, hair a struggle, kneeling on stained sheets, upraised swatter flapping like a broken wand, and seeking a release for her rage, howled like a weird sister, rakshasa or banshee at intruding Aurora, to the youngster’s secret delight.”
The metaphor of Mahatma Insistence
Mahatma is metaphorically used in the book to represent unit and oneness among the Indians. Mahatma never advocated for violence when fighting for human rights and freedom. The author writes, “Mrs. Besant Theosophy, the Mahatma’s insistence on the oneness of all India’s widely differing millions, the search among modernizing Indian intellectuals of the period for some secularist definition of the spiritual life.”
The simile of crackpot
The author compares Dr. da Gama’s ethical fears to the sentiments of a crackpot when he writes, “Dr. da Gama’s fears for our ethical future are like those of a crackpot weatherman who believes our deeds control the weather so that unless we act clemently, so to speak, there will be nothing overhead but storms.”
