A burden of motherhood (Metaphor)
Every day “but Thursday,” Bonnie and Peter “came straight home from school.” They did their homework “at the kitchen table.” Bonnie turned his threes “into birds and sideways pairs of breasts.” He watched the back of their mother “as she shelled shrimp in the sink, her spine rigid and visible through a cotton shift.” She inhaled “sharply” as she cut her finger on “a spiky leg.” She lifted her finger high enough for them to see “the drop of red falling into the bowl of naked shrimp.” They would “eat her blood for dinner.” Her children were a burden for her.
A teacher (Metaphor)
Peter dreamt about being a cook. That was his passion, his true love, so he decided to do something to make his dream come true and found a job. The chef tried to scare him off, for he didn’t want to hire a young boy who would run away in the horror after his first shift. Peter’s readiness to try himself out impressed the chef. He said he could “whip” Peter “into shape.” He was like dough, “not anything yet,” he could make a great cook out of Peter.
Put an end to it (Metaphor)
Helen wasn’t afraid of difficulties; she had never had any problem with her conscience before. The Reis case changed that once and forever. She helped the father to will full custody of his son and that proved to be a fatal mistake. The life that the father had chosen for his son didn’t suit the boy at all. One unfortunate accident turned the boy into “a vegetable,” there was no chance that one day he would recover. His mother wanted to “pull the plug” and put an end to her son’s suffering.
Pregnant (Simile)
On the day when Adele was born, Peter’s mother went to the butcher. It was January 3, 1969. Her belly, “hard as packed snow,” bobs “outside of her unzipped parka as she walked up to the counter.” Even a visit to the butcher seemed to be an unbearably difficult task for her. Pregnancy consumed all energy she had. She didn’t have anyone to help her with the household chores. According to one version of the story, she gave birth right there, “on the concrete floor of the butcher’s shop.”
Carelessly (Simile)
When the mother opens her eyes, the first thing she sees is her husband. “A chair appears behind him.” He sits and holds a baby in his lap “as casually as if it were a briefcase.” The baby’s arms are “flung backward.” Mother peers “into the pursed, demanding shape of the baby’s mouth” and “a flash of violence passes through her mind – tearing, heat, gore, broken bones – and then it lost to her forever.”
Beauty (Simile)
Peter tried to imagine his father’s mistress. She was supposed to be “the culmination of his immigrant fantasy.” He imagined the woman “blond as Marilyn Monroe, breasts like party balloons, a loudmouthed vixen.” Peter pictured her as numerous women he saw in the magazines and ads. The fantasy was so captivating that he couldn’t and – frankly – didn’t want to shake it off. That was a strange sort of entertainment for him.
