Elwood’s thoughts "ticked and hummed like a contraption" (Simile)
Elwood’s lack of tolerance for the way he was tricked with empty books is well brought out as his thoughts that night go into overdrive. He is extremely bothered by the injustice, and is unable to settle and his thoughts "tick" and "hum."
"the notch in the boy's left ear, like on an alley cat..." (Simile)
When Elwood first meets Turner, he notices that Turner has a notch in his left ear: a mark from some kind of physical fight or brawl. Turner is characterized as a boy who has survived violence, which shapes his cynical, harsh attitude towards the world. Unlike Elwood, Turner is already scarred by his experiences at Nickel, and embodies a "rougher" attitude towards any semblance of hope or justice.
"The giant was named Griff... hunched like a big brown bear." (Metaphor, Simile)
The full extent of Griff's intimidating appearance is conveyed with both a metaphor—calling him a giant—and a simile, which compares his posture to that of a hulking brown bear. The image compares Griff to an animal, thus conjuring a feeling of animalistic brutality and danger.
"hundreds of Nickels and White Houses scattered across the land like pain factories" (Simile)
Describing Nickel and the White House as "pain factories" characterizes the violence that occurs within them as something mechanical and automatic—a terrifying concept, since once the violence becomes systematized, all necessity to feel remorse for it is erased by it becoming a normal, manufactured response. Factories facilitate repetitive processes without contemplation; similarly, at Nickel, violence is dispensed without reason or thought.
"Raw slashes...crept up like gruesome fingers" (Simile)
This simile describes the slashes from which Elwood suffers after being beaten in the White House for trying to stand up to Black Mike and Lonnie. The physical "fingers" are a powerful image that conveys just how acute physical pain can be and how much it can literally take hold of Elwood, gripping him with tangible hands for weeks.
