“...simple pleasures, like finding wild onions by the side of the road, or requited love.” (Simile)
In the prologue, Beverly compares his books to simple pleasures "like finding wild onions by the side of the road or unrequited life." These comparisons are poetic in and of themselves, and show that Beverly has a deep love of language and an appreciation for the joys of life, as depressive and withdrawn as he has become.
"You’re the Master of Space and Time and I’m a spastic Pomeranian.” (Metaphor)
In a fight with Bill, Barbara uses these two metaphors to demonstrate the inequality in their relationship. She suggests that he is let off the hook more often because he is perceives as somehow transcending space and time, while she is dismissed as annoying and overly reactive, a "spastic Pomeranian."
"This is the Plains: a state of mind, right, some spiritual affliction, like the Blues." (Metaphor and Simile)
As they arrive at her parents' house, Barbara defines the Plains, the area of the country that the house is in, as a "spiritual affliction," and compares it to the Blues, a genre of music and a cultural aesthetic that combined with African music, slave songs, and spirituals. She uses these metaphors and similes as a way of showing that the Plains, and her family's house by extension, are not happy places for her.
"You're about as sexy as a wet cardboard box" (Simile)
Violet says this to Mattie Fae when Mattie Fae tries to describe herself as sexy. In one virtuosic insult, Violet compares her sister to a wet cardboard box, and deflates all of her self worth in one foul swoop.
"I was like that guy in the cartoon with the frog that only sings for him" (Simile)
At the top of Act 3, Barbara narrates to her sisters her experience of taking Violet to the doctor, and the fact that she was trying to get her mother to tell the doctor all about her difficult childhood to no avail. She compares the experience of trying to get her mother to do what she wants to a specific cartoon in which a frog sings for one man, but when he brings the frog to perform for others, it's silent.
