Spare Feelings
The use of a commonly understood metaphor for excessive weight around the middle is used to allusively suggest the nature of the relationship between Mrs. Burridge and her husband. “She doesn’t even feel like teasing him about his spare tire anymore, though she does it all the same because he would miss it if she stopped.” Spare tire is figurative language that describes a noticeable layer of fat around the waist. It is considered more polite than describing it as, for example, that layer of fat around the waist. That Mrs. Burridge still uses the metaphor rather than an explicit description indicates a level of love for her husband that is further enhanced by the fact that she doesn’t make the insult out of spite, but, at least in her mind, because it is endearing.
Paranoia
It is not entirely clear whether Mrs. Burridge is suffering paranoia as a result of authentic threats or because she is undergoing a mental health crisis, but certain clues point to the latter. The narrator informs us that Mrs. Burridge “feels beleaguered, isolated, like someone shut up inside a fortress, though no one has bothered them, in fact no one has passed their way for days, not even any of the solitary walking men.” The simile here is telling. The comparison to feeling like her long-time home has become almost an almost prison-like atmosphere despite the fact that there is no logical basis for this feeling certainly tips the balance strongly toward Mrs. Burridge suffering irrational delusions.
Feeding the Paranoia
More evidence that there is actually no “it” that is on the verge of happening which will alter society as we know it is provided by the women gathering at the Dominion Store in town. Mrs. Burridge has convinced herself that she sees “a look on the faces of the women there…an anxious, closed look, as if they are frightened of something but won’t talk about it.” In this case, it is precisely the wording of the simile that is the strongest evidence she is delusions. It is important to remember that the comparison of whatever look may actually be on the faces of the women at the store, it is only Mrs. Burridge’s perception that it bears the qualities of someone so terrified by something they are too scared even to admit to it.
Misleading Language
One of the fascinating elements to this story is the way the author manipulates language to trick them into climbing inside Mrs. Burridge’s head. For instance, there is a description of her looking across the distance beyond the back of the house and seeing columns of smoke rising into the air. She calls her husband to come look and then the narrator describes the scene. “The smoke is thick and black, oily, as though something has exploded.” Take note that the narrator has specifically engaged a simile to introduce the idea of a menacing explosion. By this point, the reader should know that this is actually an expression of Mrs. Burridge’s perception, but that detail is not made explicit and therefore becomes just ambiguous enough that it is easy to adopt her paranoia and interpret the comparison to an explosion as an assertion of an explosion. Adding to this trickery is the fact that the cause of the smoke is never confirmed one way or the other.
Living within Similes
It should be clear by now that similes are the dominant form of metaphorical imagery used in this story rather than direct metaphor. There is a distinct logic to this literary choice, especially in such examples as the following. “She does not go down into the cellar, but she has an image of her carefully sealed bottles and jars, red and yellow and purple, shattered on the floor, in a sticky puddle that looks like blood.” Throughout the story, Mrs. Burridge is described thinking about things as if they were one way or like another when in actuality they are not. The description of the mess made by the broken jars as looking like blood not only indicates the dark places where Mrs. Burridge’s mind automatically goes, but—very importantly—she is not even actually seeing this scene of broken jars, but is merely imagining it. Her entire perception of the world around her has become a living simile of things being as if they are something far different from what they actually are.
