Like home
In the following similes, Black suggests that nowhere will feel like home: "She wanted to know if anything would be laid to rest, or if we’d continue to drift through the world together, going from place to place until I made her like me, so lacking a foothold anywhere that nowhere felt like home.”
Wearing a mask
Black describes his "wrecked visage," as being like "an unwanted warning to others." He also uses a metaphor to describe the "mask" that he wears, keeping a part of himself private from others.
Devil metaphor
Black uses a metaphor to describe how supporters of slavery see their slaves as "black devils," suggesting that they are seen as evil and transgressive.
