The glimmering of history facts in the minds of young Australian boys
When Felix inquires on whether the doctor had been acquainted with Vienna, the doctor responds with his own remembrance of Australian boys going to school. In his description of his remembrance, the doctor uses a simile in which he compares the glimmering of historical facts in the minds of the young boys to the gleaming of sunlight: "I remember young Austrian boys going to school, flocks of quail they were, sitting out their recess in different spots in the sun, rosy-cheeked, brighteyed, with damp rosy mouths, smelling of the herd childhood, facts of history glimmering in their minds like sunlight, soon to be lost, soon to be forgotten, degraded into proof."
The chattering of the monk of Wittenberg
The doctor while presenting his point to Felix uses a simile to exaggerate the complaints of the monk of Wittenberg, comparing them to the chattering of a monkey. He says: "So, of
course, after that, he went wild and chattered like a monkey in a tree and started something he never thought to start (or so the writing on his side of the breakfast table would seem to confirm), an obscene megalomania—and wild and wanton stranger that that is, it must come clear and cool and long or not at all."
The water running from the cows hide
Additionally, the doctor also uses a simile to compare the water running down his hands from the cow's hide to the water tumbling down from Lahore. This particular comparison facilitates the portrayal of this particular imagery in conceptual terms to the reader and appeals to their imagination: "I put my hand on the poor bitch of a cow and her hide was running water under my hand, like water tumbling down from Lahore, jerking against my hand as if she wanted to go, standing still in one spot..."
flew like the wind
In order to portray the intensity of the speed with which the narrator ran, he uses a simile. The narrator says he "flew" like the "wind" a metaphor for the fervency and ardor with which he ran. This is a case of literary exaggeration. The narrator says: "I put down a franc and flew like the wind, the hair on my back standing as high as Queen Anne's ruff!"
The twitching of a heart
The doctor uses a simile where he compares the twitching of a heart on a plate to the jiggling of the lopped leg of a frog. This comparison facilitates imagery as the reader is able to visualize the action of "twitching."
"...I tell you Madame, if one gave birth to a heart on a plate, it would say "Love" and twitch like the lopped leg of a frog."
