“A Pack of Dogs”
Joyce Carol Oates writes, “After she’d been chased by the guys like a pack of dogs jumping their prey.” The rhetorical dogs embody the assailants who rape Teena. She is the ill-fated prey who is susceptible to violence considering the overpowering number of men who have resolved to rape her.
Chimp
Oates writes, “Since grade school he’d (Rookie Cop) had trouble with authority. Restless under the eye of anybody and looking to find his own private way, sullen and sly like a chimp hiding something behind his back.” The abstract chimp depicts the cop’s shrewdness. He endeavors to obscure his feelings like a guarded chimp would.
Appendage
Oates writes, “Now he (Rookie Cop) was a cop and he wore a gun on his hip, holstered up, liking the familiar weight of it like an extra appendage.” The emblematic appendage affirms that the gun is an omnipresent fragment of the cop’s body. He is accustomed to it that its weight does not inconvenience him.
