K’s twirling hands
LaValle uses a simile to enhance the imagery of K’s twirling hands. Specifically, the author’s choice of comparing K’s coiled and twisted hands to those of a band leader plays the role of creating a sense of familiarity and thus enhance a more vivid and deep imagery of the appearance of K’s hands as beckons the narrator to raise the volume: “K twirled his hands like a band leader, getting me to raise the volume.”
The flapping of the banners
The flapping of the NYU banners in the wind is compared to the sound of crackling teeth in the head. The unsettling and uncomfortable nature of the sound is thus emphasized through the use of the simile. The writer notes: “The NYU banners flapped with the wind, loud enough to sound like teeth cracking in your head.”
The sound of the fridge’s engine
The imagery of the fridge’s engine going is enhanced and made prevalent through the writer’s employment of a simile. Specifically, the sound of the fridge and its regularity is emphasized through the narrator’s direct comparison to a heartbeat: “Blissfully the goddamn fridge worked, I could hear its engine going, regular like a heartbeat…” The use of the simile evokes a sense of acquaintance in the reader and thus makes the comparison sensible and appealing.
The appearance of the orchids
The narrator emphasizes the appearance of the orchids through the use of a simile in which their purple color is compared to the purple color of lips exposed to the cold for a substantial amount of time. The writer notes: “…[she spilled] the juice and the orchids she had in a vase, the ones her husband had bought two days ago, purple like lips too long exposed to the cold.”
The waiting girls
The appearance of the girls, specifically their bundled-up state is made ostensible and explicit through the employment of a simile. Their appearance in a bunch is directly compared to that of green bananas, a situation that makes the imagery all the more prominent: “Her girls were waiting together in a bunch like green bananas, each one firm if you squeezed and great to eat warm.”
