Women as Swallows (Simile)
“She did not know whether or not she was welcome where they dipped in and out all day from dark to light like swallows…” (29)
Maureen, arriving at July’s settlement, observes the huts from which other women come and go. The comparison of their movement to that of swallows reflects the natural aspect of the primitive life that Maureen first perceives—the women like birds, their homes like nests; and as with nests, the huts have an exclusive, private feeling as spaces belonging to a very specific family group.
Maureen's Will as Wild Fig-Trees (Simile)
“If it had not been for her; he couldn’t remember what he really felt he had wanted to do, stay of go, but she had a will that twisted itself around him he was split and at the same time held together by it as the wild fig-trees out there in the bush crack and bind rocks.” (44)
Reflecting on the fact that they never left South Africa despite the decades of warning signs, Bam compares Maureen’s will to stay with the force of wild fig-trees wrapping around rocks. Regardless of his own will, hers was strong and like a tree rooted. Maureen didn’t want to leave.
Flow of Time like Red Smoke (Simile)
“She had not though for the risk of bilharzia as she scrubbed against a stone and watched the flow of her time, measuring off another month, curl like red smoke borne away in the passing of the river.” (67)
Maureen, washing her menstrual rags, sees her blood as a marker of time and compares her time to “red smoke,” a swelling and dissipating substance that fades into the broader river. The comparison of her passing time to smoke reflects the fleeting nature of her new life in the settlement, yet as the smoke is red, it stands out against the broader river of her life. This time is marked.
Baring of Breasts like a Man in a Factory Shower or Woman in the Ablution Block (Simile)
“The baring of breasts was not an intimacy but a castration of his sexuality and hers; she stood like a man stripped in a factory shower or a woman in the ablution block of an institution.” (90)
The striking comparison of Maureen’s naked body before her husband to an asexual experience of a “factory shower” and “ablution block” defines the state of the couples’ sexual dynamic after their strained period of propinquity and confinement. Without the freedoms of their previous lives, the couples’ passion has been obliterated, their intimacy reduced to asexual familiarity.
Feet Spread like the Claws of Marsh-Birds (Simile)
“The women hitched up their skirts in vleis and their feet spread, ooze coming up between the toes, like the claws of marsh-birds.” (92)
The description is of the women working in the fields, picking wild greens. The comparison of the women to birds is not the first. The simile that draws attention to Maureen’s view of the natural quality of three of the women’s bodies and lives is arguably pejorative in how it reduces them to “marsh birds.”
