Connie's hate for Geraldo
The narrator uses a simile to directly compare Connie's hate for Dolly's boyfriend, Geraldo. The simile facilitates the conceptualization of the depth of her hate. The narrator says: "It flowed like electric syrup through her veins how she hated him."
The back of Geraldo's arm
The narrator compares the striking of the back of Geraldo's arm striking to a rattlesnake. The use of this simile enhances imagery as the reader is able to visualize Geraldo as he shoves Dolly into the sink: "The back of his arm striking like a rattlesnake, he shoved her into the sink."
Connie's fantasy
After Dolly tries to get pregnant for Geraldo so as to get him to agree to let her stay at home, Connie develops a fantasy that Dolly and her kids would stay with her. The narrator, in an expression of this uses a simile: "Like figures of paper, like a manger scene of pasteboard figures, a fantasy had shone in Connie since her conversation with Dolly that morning: she and Dolly and Dolly’s children would live together. She would have a family again, finally."
The dream was like those paper dolls
Connie's dream of staying with Dolly together with her children is compared to paper dolls using a simile. The narrator says: "The dream was like those paper dolls, the only dolls she had had as a child, dolls with blond paper hair and Anglo features and big paper smiles."
The length of Geraldo's hands
The narrator compares Geraldo's long arms to talons directly using a simile. The simile facilitates imagery and emphasis on Geraldo's, particularly long arms. The narrator says, "the hands like long talons, the proud bearing—he was the man who had pimped her favourite niece, her baby, the pimp who had beaten Dolly and sold her to pigs to empty themselves in."
