Like shadows
The writer introduces people in Flatland, particularly how they move freely about, on or on the surface without sinking or rising above. The imagery of these movements is emphasized through the narrator’s use of a simile in which it is compared to that of shadows. The narrator notes: “[…] instead of remaining fixed in their places, move freely about, on or in the surface, but without the power of rising above or sinking below it, very much like shadows…”
The wife of a common Equilateral
The narrator brings out the incapability of the wife of a common Equilateral to achieve anything else apart from a swing, which is made apparent via a simile. The monotonous swing is compared to that of a ticking pendulum, a comparison that enhances imagery. The narrator notes: “… the wife of a common Equilateral, who can achieve nothing beyond a mere monotonous swing, like the ticking of a pendulum.”
The spread of the fashion
The rapidness and speed with which the fashion spreads among the squares and Triangles within the district are conceivable through a simile that compares it to the spread of wildfire. The narrator notes: “ The fashion spread like wildfire. Before a week was over, every Square and Triangle in the district had copied the example of Chromatistes, and only a few of the more conservative Pentagons still held out.”
The slip of knowledge
A conception of how the narrator’s knowledge was slipping from him is enhanced through the use of a simile. The slip of this knowledge is directly likened to how an image of a half-grasped dream slips away from a person. In this sense, imagery is enhanced. The narrator notes: “ I felt that all that I had seen and heard was in some strange way slipping away from me, like the image of a half-grasped, tantalizing dream.”
The haunting of the mysterious precept
The narrator presents how the precept, “Upward, not Northward,’ haunts him by directly likening it to a soul-devouring Sphinx. In this way, the intensity and magnitude of this haunting are perceivable. The narrator notes: “…and in my nightly visions the mysterious precept, ‘Upward, not Northward,’ haunts me like a soul-devouring Sphinx.”
