Mean spirits
The ruthlessness of mean spirits is emphasized through the use of a simile. The narrator notes: "They [The mean spirits] pierce the body like knives, leave a man swollen with poisonous stories." The simile thus enhances a more profound understanding of the mean spirits' brutality while also promoting imagery.
Rattling breath
The imagery of the rattling throat of a man attacked by the brutal and mean spirits is enhanced via a simile. In particular, a more enhanced understanding of the man's speedy breath through his throat is facilitated. The narrator notes: "Now he lies abed, fevered, breath rattling his throat like a dried-up plant."
Tomás's aura
The narrator reports the aura that Tomas had created around himself such that people found it difficult to approach him or encroach his personal space. His scary, petrifying, and chilling nature is emphasized when the glow of the space he created around himself is compared to that of a moldering ember.
The narrator notes: "He’s created a space around himself that few dare to breach, a kind of glow, like a moldering ember.” The simile enhances the perception of Tomas’s dangerous side.
The narrator’s anger
The narrator’s anger continues to grow and becomes more pronounced through the days instead of subsiding. The sharpness of his anger is emphasized through a simile in which it is compared to a knife: “Instead of growing dull and faint, my anger gets sharper and sharper. Like a knife. Like a big silver knife.”
The shaking seeds like rain, elderberry claps like thunder…”
“The shaking seeds like rain, elderberry claps like thunder, and voices of our little Breath of Life tribe were springs of life in the quiet climate-controlled room.” The narrator uses these similes to enhance the imagery. Comparing the shaking seeds to rain and the elderberry claps to thunder enables a deeper conception of the events by evoking a sense of familiarity and understanding.
