Metaphor for sexual desires
In the first installment, the narrator has a strange dream in which he looks down at his penis and sees it being transformed into a shape resembling a pig’s tail. In the Bible, the pig is used as a metaphor for unholy things and for sin. Thus, the transformed penis is used as a metaphor for the dangerous sexual desires that can affect a teenager’s life.
Like vampires
In the beginning of the fourth installment the people who are affected by the bug are compared with vampires. The reason why those affected by the bug are compared with vampires is because the sick ones only have the courage to get out during the night, when no one is there to see them, and because the ones affected are seen as dangerous and are avoided by almost everyone.
Metaphor for the life before the bug
In the seventh installment, Chris and Rob go to a beach where they spend a wonderful day together. During that day, they bathed in the warm water, took long strolls and acted as real teenagers, unaffected by the world around them. For a moment, the two were able to forget they were infected by the bug and just enjoyed being together. Everything changed in a matter of hours for the two and soon they were forced to face reality. The beach is thus used here as a metaphor to represent the life many had before the bug. Just like the beach was perfect for a few hours, the life many had before the bug seemed to be ideal as well.
Metaphor for the bug
Another metaphor that appears in the novel is the frog. the first installment presents the main characters in school, dissecting a frog, and the image of the frog continues to appear throughout the novel. The frog is a metaphor used in this context because it represents something that people find repulsive. Thus, the frog is used in this context as a metaphor for the bug and for the way it affects the people who contract it.
Wrecked house
When Keith invites Chris to stay at the house, she comes alone. Then, as time goes one, more and more teenagers from the camp come to the house and enjoy the TV, the shower and other elements. After a while, they become destructive towards the house and behave as hooligans, leaving trash everywhere and destroying the house in the process. The destroyed house becomes here a metaphor, standing for the teenagers’ inability to return to the civilized world. The house, or rather the society they left behind, will willingly take them back but unfortunately, they are not prepared for this and all they manage to do is destroy it.
