Simile: Adolescence like Leaving a Safe Harbor
After Arjie is no longer allowed to play with his female cousins, he feels like he is being set into adulthood, no longer able to revel in the comfort of childhood play: "[The spend-the-days] marked the beginning of my exile from the world I loved. Like a ship that leaves a port for the vast expanse of sea, those much-looked-forward-to days took me away from the safe harbor of childhood towards the precarious waters of adult life" (5). He uses the simile of a ship leaving a safe port to head out into a potentially dangerous, unknowable sea to show how he feels about leaving his comforting childhood behind.
Simile: Dream
When Arjie's mother sees Daryl after so many years, it was "as if she had just awakened from a sleep and was not sure if he was part of her dream world or her waking world" (103). This simile effectively conveys how shocking it was for Amma to see someone from her past; it is almost beyond comprehension.
Metaphor: Snake in the Grass
Diggy warns his brother about Black Tie and Lokubandara, describing the latter as a "snake in the grass." This metaphor is effective, as it indicates the man is sneaky, capable of hiding himself until he is ready to strike (208).
Simile: Poems
While Arjie is initially honored to have been selected to memorize two poems and deliver them to Black Tie, he soon devolves into paroxysms of fear when he tries to recite them before the intimidating man. This is mostly due to the cane on his desk: "I gazed at that cane and the poems fragmented in my mind like a shattered reflection on a pond" (230). The simile here is of a person looking into a pond and not seeing a clear reflection, but rather one that breaks apart into something that is ultimately imperfect and fractured.
Simile: The Kiss
When Shehan kisses Arjie, he describes the sensation thusly: "Once again, I felt myself slipping through darkness, as if I were sinking to the bottom of a pool where only smell, taste, and sensation existed" (254). In this powerful simile we can sense how wondrous and destabilizing and surreal it was for Arjie to experience this kiss.
