Noura and Faten (Metaphor)
Salma knows her husband is overprotective, but she has also noticed that Noura has started behaving differently. Her daughter’s sudden interest in religion is only slightly troubling at this point, though, for she is just a teenager who likes irking her parents. Thus, to her Larbi was “making a mountain out of a seed” (29), a metaphor that suggests he is taking something small and exaggerating its significance.
Waves (Simile)
Murad observes the water in the Strait: "The waves are inky black, except for hints of foam here and there, glistening white under the moon, like tombstones in a dark cemetery" (2). Comparing the waves to tombstones, of all things, indicates that he feels that the water is ominous and dangerous—that it might be, like it has for many others, their death.
Sun (Simile)
Halima does not succeed in the crossing and her life remains difficult. Sometimes "when the sun beat down on her until she thought her head would whistle like a kettle" (115), a simile that suggests that the stress of life makes her boil over and shriek like a kettle does when the water is hot.
Seed (Metaphor)
Aziz tells Zohra he wants her to come to Spain, but she is hesitant. When they have dinner with her sister, her sister tells her she needs to be with her husband. She says she will think about it, "But her tone was weak, and Aziz could see that her sister had planted a seed that he could cultivate until he convinced her" (163). The metaphor suggests that Zohra will take in, or "plant," this comment of her sister's, and Aziz can continue to "tend" it to finally convince her to come to Spain.
Gift (Simile)
Faten likes it when Martin is her customer, and as she never quite knows when he will show up, when he does "it was like a gift, something she could unwrap and hold up to admire" (128). The simile indicates how much Faten likes his presence compared to others who avail themselves of her services; it also foreshadows how upset she will be when he turns out to be just as loathsome as the others.
