The stately white columns
The writer presents the imagery of the stately white columns erected on the west side of the White House by comparing them to an honor guard. In this way, the reader is able to perceive their majestic nature: “the stately white columns on the west side, like an honor guard assuring safe passage.”
The veins and knots on Ed Thomas’s hand
The writer notices the most salient details about the workers working in the Rose Garden. They are older men of few words. The first of these men, Ed Thomas is described vividly, from his sunken cheeks to his hands thick with veins and knots. A simile is used in which the imagery of Ed’s hand is enhanced with its veins and knots compared to the roots of a tree: “His hand, thick with veins and knots like the roots of a tree, engulfed mine.”
The monk’s life
The writer’s life after transferring into Columbia is compared to that of a monk, a simile that enhances the reader’s understanding of how virtually uneventful it was. He does not attend parties or eat hot meals except read and write and fill up journals. He forgoes a life of fun, indulged by questions that only seem to layer on each other. The writer notes: “I lived like a monk— reading, writing, filling up journals, rarely bothering with college parties or even eating hot meals.”
The breath of the rally attendees
The crowd in Iowa City during President Obama’s final speech before the midterm elections is vibrantly described. Standing on the stage, the writer compares the rising collective breaths of the people attending the rally to mist. This comparison enhances evokes the creation of a visual image: “Standing on the stage and looking out at the thousands of people gathered there, their breath rising like mist through the klieg lights…”
Hovering breaths
In chapter five, the first paragraph introduces the happenings on the bright February morning that Obama (the writer) announced his candidacy for president. While it had been thought that bad weather would be a reason for poor attendance of the rally, the ideology couldn’t be more wrong as more than fifteen thousand people flock to the plaza, “their collective breath hovering like patches of clouds.” The use of the direct comparison of the hovering breaths to patches of clouds enhances imagery.
