The simile of things
The author is reflecting his life and trying to put down every fact and idea in detail. However, he reaches a point where he compares the past facts and opinions to the things that can be destroyed. He argues that past facts and experiences do not endure. The author writes, "The mighty characters of things are destroyed, like the things themselves, and with them ideas suffer transmutations-truly lies only in the instant – past the future deep shadows enveloping us on all sides, amidst which, learning our escort, the present, as if detached from time, we make the painful journey of life.”
The simile of paralysis
The author remembers that there are some days he could listen to certain songs sung by women in the fields that took him to the early centuries. He recalls comparing the lapse of those memories to paralysis when he says, "I had only to hear that melody to lapse instantly into a condition like a paralysis, a spiritual lethargy that made everything around me seem strange, whatever my state of mind when it overtook me.”
The metaphor of sleeping
The author disagrees with the assumption of many people that sleep is a form of rest. According to the author, sleeping is comparable to death because while sleeping, we have no awareness of what is going around us. Consequently, 'sleeping' is metaphorically used by the author to mean that one can live two separate worlds simultaneously. During the day, one is full of life and can do everything to meet his goals. At the same time, when one is sleeping, he forgets everything and anything that is happening around him. He says, "One says; I am alive. But this is not sufficient: when we sleep, we have no awareness of existing-and motherless we live.” Therefore, the author concludes that one can contain two lives.
The simile of aurora
The author remembers a day when together with his uncle were assembled in a room as usual. The season was winter, but ironically there was no snow. What remains clear to the author is the vibrant light that is comparable to the aurora. The author says, “It was winter, but there was now snow; the frozen, frost-whitened ground reflected the rays of the moon, producing a white light like an aurora.”
The Simile of Destinies
The lady's paradox of the castle meeting with the narrator is unfolded by the reader when he realizes that the two were once lovers. It is a complicated love story being told in parables because even the narrator is left in confusion and denial. She meets someone who predicts his death so that they can reunite in twenty years. During the conversation, the castle lady compares their lives to destinies and concludes that they will meet again and lively happily as they vowed. The lady of the castle says, “In twenty years, on twentieth of January: our destinies, like our lives, cannot be reunited before that day.”
