The pangs of pain
The narrator uses a simile to emphasize the pangs of pain as they ravage through Alicia’s body. In particular, the intensity of the pain is made explicit when the narrator compares its echoing within her cells to thunder's boom. The narrator notes: “The pain pounded through her, a wind of steel; it echoed in her cells like thunder.”
Alicia’s shattered soul
Losing one’s child is pain unforgettable. Alicia, as she buries her daughter, is shattered. The narrator compares how shattered she felt to broken chips of glass within her. The simile is meant to enhance imagery while also heightening the reader’s understanding of the depicted feelings--pain: “She returned to her tent. Her soul felt shattered, like a million chips of glass inside her.”
The moon’s light across the water
Alicia dreams of a river with the moon shining above it. The moon's effect on the river's appearance is made comprehensible through a simile in which the river is likened to a golden road.
“She dreamed of a river. A wide, dark river, and above it, the moon was shining. It laid its light across the water like a golden road.”
The imagery of Peter's hair
The narrator employs vivid descriptions to evoke the image of Peter in the reader’s subconscious. The appearance is made more prevalent and pronounced via a simile in which his hair is said to be as white as snow.
The writer notes: “The deep creases and sagging jowls, the pockets of flesh beneath eyes dulled by time, and his hair, what little remained, gone white, like a cap of snow.”
The storm
The writer, through personification, depicts the impact of the storm on the boat. Specifically, the storm is said to have slapped the boat, and a simile likens this to the slap of a giant hand: “Too quickly, it arrived with an earsplitting blast of thunder and a massive, rain-saturated gust that slapped the boat like a giant hand, heeling it hard.”
