A fish for dinner
When the narrator talks about the Cree girl he brought home, to whom his mother and grandmother thought was his wife, he says that she was like a fish for dinner, nothing special. But, when she left with his gun and razor he begins to develop feelings for her, to longingly remember her standing by his bed.
Old dog sniffing the wind
Yellow Calf is the man living in connection to nature, therefore the image of him standing and lifting his head with a dignity of an old dog sniffing the wind is not a degrading or negative one, on the contrary, the man is blind and he is living alone proudly, nature being his guide.
A bug floating motionless
The coldness and distance the narrator feels from other people is strongly emphasized in his intimate relationship with a woman he meets in town, Marlene. Despite establishing a physical connection to her, the lack of emotional connection prevails. She begins to cry upon him leaving her and he can only look at her like one looks at a bug floating motionless, not yet dead but having decide upon death.
Atmosphere of death
When the narrator returns home, he finds the house empty. Immediately he realizes that something is not quite right and correctly concludes that his grandmother died. There was a suggestion of death in the air; he smelled it, dark and musty, as one smells mother's milk from baby's breath.
Distant from oneself as a hawk from the moon
At the beginning of the novel the narrator immediately and quite impactfully reveals his emotional state. He makes it clear that he has no emotion for anyone, but most of all for himself. He describes it as being distant from himself as a hawk from the moon.
