The Yellow Birds Metaphors and Similes

The Yellow Birds Metaphors and Similes

War is marriage metaphor

"The war had become a presence in our lives. We were grooms before a marriage."

Bartle describes the preparation for his enlistment. All his life has turned to preparing, training for the war like a groom that is about to marry.

Battle is like a car accident simile

When asked what it feels like to go out in the battlefield, Murph describes it like being in a car accident. It is like a moment between knowing that it's going to happen and actually happening. It is a helpless feeling. But the difference is that with them that split second moment lasts for days. In other words, every time soldiers go out into the battle they are prepared for death.

Decaying bodies growing like plants simile

"All others who died in Al Tafar were part of the landscape, as if something had sown seeds in that city that made bodies rise from the earth, in the dirt or up through the pavement like flowers after a frost, dried and withering under a cold, bright sun."

Bartle has a lack of emotions for the ones who died in Al Tafar but weren't with them. To him they are like a part of the landscape, like plants growing from the ground. And this lack of emotions helps him to justify all the killing.

Simile for fragility of life

"It’s as if your life is a perch on the edge of a cliff..."

Bartle has a hard time getting back to normality after he returns from war. He is depressed, ashamed of himself and has suicidal thoughts. His life is fragile as a perch on the edge of a cliff; he is unable to go forward.

Bloody angel made of dust metaphor

It is a metaphor for the death of an innocent as there are a lot of innocent civilians killed in the war. A man is killed by a mortar and the last tremors of life leave an impression in the ground that to Bartle appears as a bloody angel.

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