House of Death
The very first paragraph of the novel gives metaphorical name to the household where all the trouble at the center of the story takes place. After those events, the location will become infamously known as the “House of Death.”
Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda…
Neff ponders over his first meeting with the married woman who will draw him into a web of murder and knows just one thing when it is over: he should have “dropped her…like a red hot poker.” But, of course, he doesn’t. Because he can’t.
Killers: Animals and Lunatics
Just after the actual murder takes place, emotions run high and before long the close-knit bond which brought Phyllis and Neff together breaks down under the strain and before long Phyllis “raved like maniac” which leads to them going at one another “like a couple of wild animals.”
“A woman is a funny animal.”
Neff sums up an entire gender after watching how coldly and with such precise calculation Phyllis prepares for murdering her husband. Funny is a strange word to use here, but then Mr. Neff turns out not to be the world’s greatest judge of character.
The Insurance Game
In trying to explain the seeming insanity of what he going to do, Walter offers an overview of the world of the insurance industry. His frames this explanation within the foundation of one single metaphorical description that covers it all. The insurance business is nothing more nor less than “the biggest gambling wheel in the world.”
