A kind of odor you can’t forget (Metaphor)
Odors are closely connected with memories. David also had such memories connected with the smell. It was the smell of Mrs. Watkins’s breath (a kind of strange memory): “It was a kind of odor you can't forget, the kind that reminds you of something or someone, like the smell of flowers always reminds me of funerals”. The metaphor shows David’s character, and things which was memorable for him.
Aunt Mae looked like a big statue (simile)
Aunt Mae was David’s best friend and the closest person in the world for him. He mentions that she looked like a big statue to him, “a silver one”, like the one they had in a town park. She always helped him, she was big and strong and in the same time she felt soft and warm. He fell safe around her because he knew that whatever happens Aunt Mae will be near and everything will be ok until they are together. The simile shows the importance of Aunt Mae in boy’s life and how he treats her.
A flower for lunch (Metaphor)
David has never seen in his life Aunt Mae cooking, but one day she had to cook him breakfast and lunch for him. Although she wasn’t a good hostess, she did that with great love and endless care for her little boy. She put there a flower from the little garden Aunt Mae had tried to grow. David knew it was the only flower that had come out from the little plants she had: “I took it back to her when I went home. She was so glad to have it back and so proud of it that I thought how nice it was of her to put it in my lunch when she thought it was so valuable”. The flower was a symbol of Aunt’s love to David, she was ready to give him all she had, no matter how it was important for her.
The night seemed like it would never get light again and like the wind would never stop (Simile)
David was staying in the room where his train was at night when his mother died. He was completely lost and didn’t know what to do, Aunt Mae left and there no man in the whole world to help him. It was cold in the house and the strong wind was blowing all night long. It seemed to him as if this terrible night will last forever and he will be staying in this room all his life. The simile shows how the character felt at the moment, his fear and endless sorrow.
People, hungry for revival (Metaphor)
During the war period people were too busy working hard and thinking about their close people who were far away from them, maybe dead, maybe dying. All these cares, poverty and fear exhausted people and they were like zombies – they didn’t live, just exist. And a party in the school, held by people from the factory, was a kind of revival for them, which they all longed to experience. The metaphor shows the aspiration of people to have some relief even during the war period.
