“A Game of Musical Chairs”
Jannon recounts, “So then, after less than a year of employment, I was jobless. It turned out it was more than just the food chains that had contracted. People were living in motels and tent cities. The whole economy suddenly felt like a game of musical chairs, and I was convinced I need to grab a seta, any seat as fast as I could.” The metaphorical game underscores the turmoil and struggle which ensues in the economy due to recession. Getting a chair, which is emblematic of a job, would empower Jannon to survive the musical.
A Monkey
Jannon states, “SO THAT WAS A MONTH AGO. Now I’m the night clerk at Penumbra’s and I go up and down that ladder like a monkey. There’s a real technique to it. You roll the ladder into place, lock its wheels, then bend your knees and leap directly to the third or fourth rung.” The allegorical monkey summarizes the nature of Jannon’s responsibilities at the bookshop which predominantly deal with reorganizing the loft bookshelves. He must emulate the monkey for him to traverse the shelves expeditiously.
Flies
Jannon expounds, “For all I know, Penumbra has a camera somewhere. If I sneak peak and he finds out, I’m fired. My friends are dropping like flies out there; whole industries, whole parts of the country, are shutting down. I don’t want to live in a tent. I need this job.” The rhetorical flies underscore Jannon’s friends’ predicament which is attributed to the biting recession which has occasioned their joblessness. Flies depict the suffering and lowly status which his friends are weathering.
