Opening Line
The novel opens with a simile. The very first line of the story efficiently and subtly situates the novel’s theme of the dehumanization of war:
“The soldier was laden like a pack mule.”
Absolutely Nothing...Almost
A character appropriately named Price offers a socialist perspective on a main point of contention among characters: war, what is it good for? Price comes down on the side of war being good for nothing but the creation of new markets and opportunities for investment because:
“War is the last stage of the capitalist cycle and as long as we have capitalism we’ll have wars.”
Jokes as Metaphor
An old joke is brought into service as a metaphor to ease the tension in a most peculiar situation for jokes and metaphor: a sexual encounter that is also a business transaction.
“Marriage is the price men pay for sex and sex is the price women pay for marriage.”
The Dark of Night
Writers love darkness Especially 20th and 21st century writers. As simile and metaphor it is useful because it is so flexible. For modern writers, the very big business of treating depression also makes it quite useful. Here is a relatively rare example where darkness as metaphor relates to its literal meaning:
“The night was like a cloak; perhaps it was the darkness that was weakening his resolve. It felt so anonymous, so secret.”
Tanks for Nothing
The battlefields of World War One were notoriously muddy battlegrounds. Not much for humans to stomp around in, they ironically stopped more tanks than gunfire. A simile puts irony into perspective:
“It was like some great beached whale in armour plating, at once mighty and pathetic, its very size and strength mocked by its hopeless position.”
