The simile of a girl
The narrator commences her story by imagining how people around her perceive how she looks. She has boarded a bus heading to her destination but she is imagining that she looks like a nursing student or someone studying geography or plants. She says, "I looked like a young girl who you’d expect to see on a city bus, reading some clothbound book from the library about plants or geography, perhaps wearing a net over my light brown hair." However, she concludes that she is nothing special because or she is thinking is merely an imagination of people's perception of her.
The Simile of Joan of Arc
At first, the narrator talks about how she hated herself because she feels that she deserved better than what she received in her early life. Most of the time she was deplorable, silent, and lonely. She hated everything about herself. She says that she was thin and unattractive to herself because she did not know what people thought about her. Any effort to control her emotions and perception made her feel, awkward, angry, and unhappier because of being born in a wrong life. She says, "I was like Joan of arc or Hamlet, but born into a wrong life – the life of a nobody, a waif, invisible.” This simile draws the attention of the reader to the early life of Eileen fifty years ago.
The Simile of Gypsies/Jews
As the narrator tells her story, she reflects on the memories of her mother. Before her mother died, their home was organized and everything was put in place. However, after her death, the home looked deserted. The narrator recalls how their house looked disorganized because nobody bothered to rearrange things after the demise of her mother. The home was very dirty, disorganized, and dusty. The narrator refers her home to an inhabited premise when she says, "It was like an abandoned home; its owners having fled one night like Jews or gypsies." All the descriptions in this simile help the reader to realize how empty the house was without the presence of the narrator's mother. The reader is farther left to imagine the reasons why the narrator felt awkward and being born in a wrong home.
The simile of the criminal boys
According to the narrator, the Moorehead boys looked like nice guys to her because of their circumstances. These boys led a private life because they rarely shared anything concerning their lives. However, the narrator knew everything about them because she had access to all their criminal files. While growing up, these boys were not allowed to do what children do and that is one of the reasons why they ended up in criminal lives. Most of these boys discussed by the narrator were the finest thieves, rapists, and murderers. However, most of the boys were orphans while others came from regular families. The narrator says, "Others were from regular families and their demeanor was more domestic, more sensitive, and they walked like cowards.” Ironically, these boys’ crimes seemed normal to the narrator and she just found herself liking the rough boys.
The simile of the perfumed people
The narrator’s sense of smell is still active till now and she remembers how people naturally smelt good during her early days. She draws a contrast with the contemporary people who struggle to smell good by applying perfume into their bodies and they end up smelling awful. The narrator says that she cannot stay in the same room with a person who has applied perfume. People with perfume smell bad and the narrator compares their bad smell to the dogs’ feces when she says, “They are like the dogs who roll around in one another’s feces." Consequently, the narrator is not referring to the natural smell of an individual but she means the bad smell that comes from the perfume that is applied.
