Book simile
The author compares reading books to traveling, saying that: "Books had offered me visions of new worlds different from the one that was most familiar to me. Like exotic and strange new lands, books brought adventure, new ways to think and be."
Metaphor of silence
In the text, the silence of black women becomes a metaphor for their lack of representation and inclusion in the feminist narrative. The author often refers to the lack of black female "voices" in feminism, with their voice representing their involvement, contribution, and representation.
Slave passage metaphor
One man describes the horrors of the slave passage, saying that "mothers with babes at their breasts basely branded and scarred, till it would seem as if the very heavens might smite the infernal tormentors with the doom they so richly merited." Here, the witness uses a simile to describe how terribly these women were punished.
