An irritant (Metaphor)
Misha was reckless enough to make fun of Buffo, “the Flop” who hated Jews so much that he “pretended to be one so that he could live in the ghetto” and “torment Jews to his heart’s content.” His favorite sound was the one “of his club cracking open a skull like a pumpkin.” However, it was not true. He “hardly ever used his club.” Buffo’s real weapons were “his hands.” More than anything in the world, he loved “killing Jews with his hands.” It did not scare Misha off. The boy became his “personal gnat.” Every time the boy met Buffo, he did something to catch his attention to irk him.
Inseparable (Metaphor)
Janina and Misha became inseparable, though the boy wasn’t too fond of that fact, for he was afraid of her being caught. He treated her like his younger sister, took care of her, and risked his life to bring some food to save the girl from hunger. Misha did it not because he had to. The boy was happy to be helpful, he longed to be accepted. Uri made him to crave for something that Misha didn’t know. It was a family. The Milgroms saved the orphan from loneliness while the boy saved them from hunger. He was ready to die for them, the only one thing he was not prepared for was Janina’s eagerness to follow him everywhere. She was his “shadow.”
The stable (Simile)
Uri took Misha to “meet the others.” They were in the stable, the horses were there too. “Usually they would be out on the streets,” but “they were home now” because the Jackboots “were boom-booming the city.” The boys either smoked or ate. “In the corner of the stable” was a pile “as tall” as Misha. There was “bread in all shapes and sausages of all lengths and colors and fruits and candies.” “All sorts of other things” glittered in the pile. Being a smuggler, Misha could take his eyes off it. That was a real miracle.
Deep brown (Simile)
The boy came to a garden. Though the majority of them were “all brown stalks and stubble and fallen leaves by now,” that one had a little patch of “green and red.” It was “a tomato plant, probably the last surviving one of the season.” Misha was hungry, so he pulled off a red tomato, sat himself down cross-legged on the ground and, ate it. As the boy was eating, he turned his eyes toward the back of the house. He noticed that “someone was sitting on the step.” There was a little girl, who was watching him. Her eyes were as “brown” as “chestnuts.”
The uncatchable (Simile)
Misha saw a lady “carrying cream puffs.” He had to get them, hunger made him act quickly. Misha “snatched the box” and ran. Trying to get away from there, the boy didn’t notice anything around him, so he ran into another boy and fell “flat” on his back. Cream puffs were scattered about the sidewalk. Before the pair could start a fight over them, the boys had heard a voice. “Well, well,” he said. “Little thieves.” It was “a Jackboot,” so the boys were gone, “fast as flies.” They knew that even one minute of delay could lead to terrible consequences.
