The center of the lump of death
The tiny appearance of the of the lump of death’s center is emphasized via the employment of language that directly likens the same to the size of a ball bearing. In this way, the reader is able to have a more refined picture of the lump and the imagery is thus made protuberant. The narrator notes that, “It’s sooo tiny, like a tiny ball bearing, and really hard.”
The lingering sound of the bell
The persistent and haunting sound of the bell in the living room is enhanced through the use of a simile. The narrator enhances this imagery through the use of a simile: “Even after the ringing stopped, the sound of the bell lingered in the indoor evening gloom like dust floating in the air.”
“My body felt like a corpse…”
The intensity and concentration of the weakness that the narrator develops is made more evident via Murakami’s employment of a simile. As a result of comparing how his body felt like a corpse, the narrator is able to draw the reader’s attention on to how weak and lifeless he’d felt at the time.
“My body felt like a corpse someone else’s corpse-sinking into the canvas deck chair..."
The lump of death
The narrator is of the idea that something exists within a corpse, something rather squishy and soft and round—a lump of death. Murakami improves the imaginings of this lump of death through the use of a simile. Unambiguously, comparing the lump of death to a softball enables the reader to develop a more refined and prominent image of its spongy and mushy feel.
The narrator notes: “Not the corpse ... the lump of death. I’m sure there must be something like that. Something round and squishy, like a softball, with a hard little core of dead nerves.”
Ice clinging inside the glass
As the ice cubes in the girl’s glass cling against the insides of her glass, a sound is made whose imagery is made all the more prominent, via its direct comparison to a cowbell. Through the aroused familiarity with the sound of a cowbell, the reader is able to develop a more weighty and deep-founded conception of the sound of the ice as it clings within the girl’s glass.
The narrator notes: “Whenever the girl moved her glass, the ice clinked inside it like a cowbell.”
