Sensory Stuff
Sometimes metaphor is used for the purpose of quick delineation of a sensory perception of a character. One character may refer to another in a way that is doubly descriptive: giving a sense of both the person being described and the one doing it. Such is the case here in which one person is succinctly delineating what other smells like:
"Like a dandruffy woodchuck."
The Vagaries of Remembrance
Trying to remember something that is on the tip of your brain, so to speak, can be a real pain in the neck. If only the mind were like a phonograph where the needle has gotten stuck and you could dislodge the obstruction with a smack upside the head:
“And Vespugia is part of Patagonia. And there was a connection that was lost and had to be found, but what was it? I keep almost remembering, and then it's as if someone slams a door on my memory."
Getting to Be Kind of Yoda-ish
The metaphors at one point almost begin to veer into Yoda territory. Herbal tea is served with the intent of ceasing a rising anger. But it is not anger that needs soothing:
"Anger is not bitterness. Bitterness can go on eating at a man's heart and mind forever. Anger spends itself in its own time."
Physical Description
Metaphor and simile are robustly engaged to serve the purpose of character description from a physical perspective. Rather than relying upon a character to describe another character, this is the simple type of a narrator conveying expository information:
“A boy sat on an outcropping of rock, whittling a spear with a sharp stone. He was tanned and lean, with shining hair the color of a blackbird's wing, and dark eyes which sparkled like the water of the lake.”
Darkness
Darkness, always darkness. Don’t even look for darkness as a metaphorical image, it will find you. It is in almost literally in every work of fiction (and increasingly omnipresent in non-fiction) since the turn of the 20th century. Darkness is the definitive metaphor of the modern age, an inescapable aspect of the literature of our time:
“Charles Wallace felt weighed down by darkness and pain.”
