The Gathering Metaphors and Similes

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The Gathering Metaphors and Similes

Rope

Veronica suffers from anxiety and depression after her brother's death. The attacks come suddenly to her, like missing a stair as you fall asleep. She feels her future falling from the roof of her mind and when she looks there is nothing there, aside from a rope that she can't touch.

Benign human meat

Veronica is critical of the women in her life, especially her mother who couldn't stop her husband from making her pregnant over and over again. Now that she looks at her, she wonders what she was like before her children were gone, if she was a mother kissing her baby's tummy instead of benign human meat in front of her.

Like an expanding smell

Veronica is haunted by the ghost of her brother's presence after his death. She can't help but hear his voice, laughter or cynical remarks. She feels him inside her head like an expanding smell that allows him to look through her eyes and be unsatisfied what he sees in front.

Where the silence happened

Veronica comes back to Ada's house to look at the place and the garage where the silence happened. She feels it an overwhelming silence, like the air was made of wood and the flowers on the wallpapers were entirely still but at the same time writhed to the eight-year-old her. The silence Veronica talks about is the silence she kept all these years, the silence about events that led her brother to depression.

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Study Guide for The Gathering

The Gathering study guide contains a biography of Anne Enright, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

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