Simile: Buildings
Baldwin's imagery and similes often create a nightmarish vision of the city. One such example comes early on in the book when Rufus is perambulating the streets, lonely, starving, and bereft of all real connection to other people: "The great buildings, unlit, blunt like the phallus or sharp like the spear, guarded the city which never slept" (4). Here the simile compares the skyscrapers to the phallus, which men often wield to dominate, and to a spear, a weapon that can wound or kill; Rufus clearly views the city as aggressive and dangerous towards him.
Metaphor: Roots
Rufus thinks about his home uptown, his homes with Leona, and his current lack of a home. Baldwin writes, "Now he began to wonder if anyone could ever put down roots in this rock" (60). He uses a classic metaphor of home as roots of a plant, suggesting that when people make a home they burrow deep into the fertile earth. Yet the city is not a swath of fertile soil—it is a hard rock in which it is impossible for roots to take hold. Rufus is thus denied a home here, a realization that adds to his despair.
Metaphor: Taking the Plunge
At Richard's book party, several people suggest Vivaldo is also very talented and on the precipice of something great. This leads him to a realization that he is ready to push his novel forward, captured in the metaphor of diving into water: "And he himself felt, in a way he had not felt before, that it was time for him to take the plunge. This was the water, the people in the room; it impressed him, certainly, as far from fine, but it was the only water there was" (165).
Simile: Yves's Voice
Eric is deeply troubled about moving back to New York even though he knows it is right for his career. He worries about what the city did to him in the past, and the weight of the memory of Rufus. He worries about losing Yves as well, but when Yves speaks to him in their private garden before Eric leaves, "His voice fell over Eric like waves of safety" (198). Yves comforts Eric and makes him feel safe, as this simile shows; this feeling of safety is gentle and methodical and predictable just like waves rolling into the shore, and Eric is loath to leave it.
Metaphor: Dues to Pay
Ida is frank with Cass about the situation she has gotten herself into, using a metaphor of owing money, not having any experience owing money, and not having anything saved to pay the debt: "you don't have any experience paying your dues and it's going to be rough on you, baby, when the deal goes down. There're lots of back dues to be collected, and I know damn well you haven't got a penny saved" (350). This metaphor is an effective way to suggest that Cass's "debts" are due soon, and it is not going to be pretty when she does not have a way to pay them; indeed, this very night she and Richard have the dreaded reckoning about their marriage.
