Zita’s bent fingers
The imagery of Zita’s fingers is enhanced through their comparison to claws. The simile facilitates the reader’s profound conception of the appearance of Zita’s bent fingers, perhaps, an effect of old age: “ALL THE WAY home Sigita thought about Zita’s hands. Eight-year-old fingers bent like claws against the yellowed piano keys.”
The sliding taxi
The writer enhances the reader’s understanding of the smooth movement of the taxi through the midnight traffic through the use of a simile in which it is compared to a shark moving through a herring shoal. The writer notes:
“HE WONDERED IF they were watching him. The taxi slid through the midnight traffic like a shark through a herring shoal, and he couldn’t tell whether any specific car stayed behind them.”
The impact of the sound of Sigita’s phone
The effect of the sound from Sigita’s phone is made perceivable through the narrator’s employment of a simile to compare the same to the movement of a shockwave. The use of the comparison enables the narrator to explicitly bring out the effect of the sound of the phone as it goes through her:
“Sigita’s mobile gave a muffled ring inside her purse the minute she opened her own front door. The sound went through her like a shockwave, and she emptied the purse onto the coffee table.”
The imagery of Julija
The writer enhances the image of Julija in the reader’s mind, particularly her unmoving and motionless state through the direct comparison of her appearance to that of a trapped animal. The writer notes: “Julija sat there, frozen like a trapped animal. It hurt to look at her.”
The movement of a person behind the windows
“Up there behind the windows, someone was moving, back and forth, jerkily, like a predator in an inadequate cage.”
The use of this description enhances imagery through which the reader is able to develop a refined understanding of the depicted movements of the person behind the windows.
