Like A Jet (Simile)
Ray admires the signage of his storefront: “The letters on the new sign he’d just paid for tilted upward like a jet taking to the sky.” Whitehead uses the simile of a jet taking off to imply the sense of hope Ray feels about his furniture store and the pride he takes in the quality of its sign.
Uncle Pepper (Simile)
While at dinner, Pepper is described in the following manner: “He chewed, savoring, squeezed in between John and May like an eccentric uncle.” This simile is used to suggest that Pepper is, however oddly, now part of Ray's family, given that Ray trusts him to be around his wife and children.
Like A Farmer (Simile)
The narrator depicts Ray's floor salesman Rusty in the following manner: “Rusty reacted to routine sales patterns like a farmer scanning the skies for thunderheads.” He uses the simile of a farmer looking for thunderheads to show the amount of care and concern that Rusty puts into his sales.
Chops and Ribs (Metaphor)
While thinking about stickups and stakeouts, Pepper mentally compares them to pork chops and ribs, respectively: “One was fast and one was slow, and it was the same for stickups and stakeouts. Stickups were chops—they cook fast and hot, you’re in and out. A stakeout was ribs—fire down low, slow, taking your time.” The metaphor of ribs is used to illustrate the way stakeouts take time and patience.
Mining the Rocks (Metaphor)
The narrator writes about Miami Joe in an early chapter: “Miami Joe, sipping Canadian Club and twisting his pinkie rings as he mined the dark rock of his thoughts.” The narrator employs the metaphor of "mining the dark rock" to suggest that his thoughts are malevolent and hidden from plain sight.
