Darkness settled down like a black mantle over the valley (Simile)
This simile expresses the mood of the episode, when the reader meets Columbine and Wilson in the first time. The atmosphere of darkness and a deserted valley helps the reader to understand that there is something between those two, something they do not say each other, something bright and beautiful.
Face as black as a thundercloud (Simile)
This simile is used for depiction of Jack Bellounds, it is the way Columbine sees him and how she feels about him. Jack was jealous man, she couldn’t bear that Columbine doesn’t love him but this “club-footed” hunter Wilson and every time he knew that they met, he went crazy and showed his real features of cruel and evil man who cares just for himself.
A surge that shook her (Columbines’) whole body (Metaphor)
When Columbine came to see Wilson after Jack had beaten him, she was trembling because she realized by then that she loves him and it was unbearable for her to see him suffering and know that she can do anything to help him. Love was a new feeling for Columbine, it was something terrible and beautiful in the same time. This feeling literally shook her body: “her heart throbbed and swelled with emotions wholly beyond her control and understanding”. The metaphor shows Columbines’ feelings about love, and her understanding of it both physical and mental.
A shuddering cataclysm enveloped him (Metaphor)
This metaphor is aimed to drive to the reader Wades’ feelings when he realized that Columbine was his daughter. He saw her in the first time and before she said her name he knew that it was her because she looked like her mother, the woman she abused almost 20 years ago, the woman who loved him and he loved. Wade was shocked, he couldn’t even move: “It's for this—I wandered here! She's my flesh an' blood—my Lucy's child—my own!”
Hate – a poison in the blood (Metaphor)
The metaphor expresses the Wades’ idea about hate and is consequences, he emphasizes that there is nothing good about this feeling. “It's worse for him who feels it than for him against whom it rages”, he adds. And these words could persuade Wilson Moore not to kill Jack Bellounds. The old hunter was right, hate brings nothing except pain, anger and lost.
Wild flower of the hills (Metaphor)
The metaphor is used for depiction of Columbine and her character, especially her beauty and kind heart. Wilson had said it. His love to that girl war endless and he hoped that they will be forever together and no one will separate them: “you girl with the sweet mouth and the sad eyes—then I'm coming after you! And all the king's horses and all the king's men can never take you away from me again!”
