Like little birds
In the first chapter, after Charles tells Meg about the way he was feeling, he mentions how a friend of their mother’s, a woman named Louise who is also a doctor came over to see him. Charles compares the doctor with a bird, her mind flapping just like the wings of a bird. Through this, Charles wanted to transmit the idea that the doctor was incredibly intelligent and he could not read the way she was thinking or get an idea about her thinking process.
Like the dragons
In the beginning of the novel, Meg and Charles talk about their father and how he went on a trip again. The trip the father took to Washington is compared with Charles seeing the dragons on the pasture. Through this, the narrator wanted to transmit the idea that if the children were to talk about the existence of the dragons or their father’s trip they would be believed in an equal manner.
The mind of a grasshopper
When Charles talks about his teacher, he compares her with a grasshopper, especially when it comes to the size of her brain. What Charles wants to transmit through this is the idea that he did not saw his teacher as being smart or intelligent in any way.
Safe space
After coming home from school, Meg and Charles goes to the pasture and to the stone wall and sit there and talk to one another. The stone wall is the place where Charles feels safe enough to express his fears and his feelings and thus it is used here as a safe space.
Metaphor for danger
In the first chapter, Meg and Charles are sitting on the wall near the pasture and talk about the subject that makes Charles be bullied in school. As they are talking, the sky grows darker and clouds appear almost out of nowhere. The clouds are used here as a metaphor for the danger that will come and threaten the children's lives.
