No Prostitutes on East Congress Street
The prostitutes moving on from East Congress Street was a metaphor for the gentrification of the area of the Historic District, and the return of the families with children to the area was a metaphor for the success of Williams' improvement of the district.
Red Line Area Metaphor
The. Amos had "red lined" the whole area and this is a metaphor for their refusal to loan anyone money to improve the district or to give anyone a mortgage to buy a home there, because they would not see any return on homes that were "in the red" if the loans were not paid on.
Eyes Simile
John Williams was said to have "eyes so black they were like the tinted windows of a sleek limousine - he could see out, but you couldn't see in." This comparison between Williams' eyes and blacked out windows is actually very revealing in terms of suggesting how and why he was so successful in business and also so hard to really get to know or understand. A person's eyes are usually termed the windows to their soul and if these windows were blacked out it would be hard to see what was really the soul of the man, and all one would see would be the front that he wanted to present.
Wickedness Metaphor
During Prohibition, Billy Sunday declared Savannah to be the "wickedest city in the world" and this was because it was never a dry city, selling liquor out of the pumps at the gas station. To Billy, alcohol was a metaphor for wickedness, and it was often called the "demon drink" to illustrate the view of preachers like him.
Dirty Face Simile
Lady Astor remarked that Savannah was "like a beautiful woman with a dirty face" which tells us that although the city is beautiful it is not the place that it was and all the beautiful houses have fallen into disrepair, and are not looking as fine as they once did, or as they still could.
Horse Tethering Simile
The old lady parked "as if tethering a horse to a hitching post" which indicated that she was pulled in on a diagonal and had not even tried to parallel park. This in turn demonstrated the urgency that she felt in her mission to break the glass in the front door as it was too important to her to take the time to park properly; she did the equivalent of galloping up and jumping off her hitched horse, rather than pulling up and parking.
