The taste of the food that had been left in the fridge
After returning home from school to find her mother dancing to some unknown music, Becca finds out that the food that had been left in the fridge was untouched. To prevent the food from going to waste, she eats it comparing its implicitly foul taste to sweat and hot air using a simile. The comparison enhances imagery: "The food tasted like sweat and hot air, but I ate because I was hungry and because I could not let it go to waste."
Reference to Akiko as a wild child raised by tigers
When the missionaries found Akiko, they try to speak to her in all manner of languages including Chinese, Japanese and even Korean to try and elicit a response from her. Realizing that she cannot speak to them, the missionaries compare her to a wild child raised by tigers with the ability to communicate with animals: "She is like the wild child raised by tigers, I heard them say to each other. Physically human but able to speak only in the language of animals."
Sold like one of the cows before and after me
The narrator uses a simile in which she compares herself to a cow in reference to the manner in which she was sold as dowry. This direct comparison sheds light on how the girl child was viewed in this society: "I was her dowry, sold like one of the cows before and after me."
Skewered from her vagina to her mouth
After the previous Akiko denounces the soldiers and asks them to stop invading her country as well as her body saying she is Korean, the soldiers take her before daybreak and bring her back later with her body stabbed and pricked. A simile is used to describe her appearance comparing it to a pig that is ready for roasting. This enhances imagery: "They brought her back skewered from her vagina to her mouth, like a pig ready for roasting."
The laughing of the Toots and her Entourage like howling dogs
After Beccah sings excruciatingly poorly, as she slinks off the stage, the Entourage and the Toots are reported to laugh and howl like dogs. The use of this particular simile enhances imagery and a conceptual understanding of the hysterical nature of the laugh: "As I slunk off the stage, I heard Toots and her Entourage laughing and howling like dogs."
