Simile of Germans
The narrator compares the enemy (Germans) to good guys because they were marching and led out of destroyed villages. The narrator says, “We finally got to see Germans, being led out of destroyed villages in forced marches. It was our first chance to examine the enemy. They didn’t look like bad guys. In fact, they looked like us." However, these Germans that were being led out of the destroyed villages were prisoners, which is why they looked harmless.
Simile of smartness
The narrator compares his intelligence to others and concludes that he is not smarter than his colleagues on the battlefield. The narrator says, “People should have considered the investable hardships ahead of time. I mean, I would think of them, and it is not as if I was any smarter than anyone else. But what could I have done? Would I have been allowed to speak out? Would anyone have listened to the lathe operator from rue des Panayaux? Hardly.”
The simile of a corpse
The narrator describes the devastating likelihood of war which results in massive deaths. However, death is not discriminatory, and when he dies, he has no control over where to belong. The narrator compares himself to the corpses piled alongside other corpses that he would not like to be associated with. The narrator says, “I saw myself as a corpse swept into this stream of fools against my will. Along with thousands, millions of other corpses, I did not like it one little bit.”
