The simile of the hill
The three brothers holding the girl captive in the hill compare it to the rotting heart of the giant. The author writes, “Her brothers three, who lives in a big hut, say that the hill looks like the rotting heart of a giant turn upside down, but she doesn't know what any of that means." The girl held captive is innocent does not know the intentions of her brothers.
The simile of the girl
The girl on the hill is getting thinner and malnourished every day because she is not getting enough food from her brothers. Her health is deteriorating, and the author compares her chest to earth because the breasts cannot be noticed. The author writes, “Two legs getting longer but still two sticks, head getting bigger but chest as flat as earth, she may be right at the age before her body set loose, but nobody bothers to count her years. Yet they mark it every summer; mark it with rage and grief.”
The simile of the lips
The girl's pressing of the lips is compared to knuckles to show how she suffers from the sins she never committed. The level of her mistreatment is demonstrated using a simile when the author writes, “So she is pressing her lips together because that is a firm thing, her lips as tight as the knuckles she is squeezing. Resolve set in her face to match her mind.”
The simile of the helmets
Besides being imagery that describes the physical appearance of the boys, the reader uses a simile when comparing their helmets to straw cages. The author writes, "Boys like they were born wearing nothing but yellow, red, blue straw pads on their elbows, and shins, and tiny straw shields over their knuckles. The older two wear helmets that look like straw cages over their heads."
