The Simile of moving locomotive
The narrator reflects on the good days when his father had not received a transfer letter to work in a different place. Everything was expected and was done according to routine, implying that there was no need for remembrance. The narrator compares the past events to a locomotive train that treads. The narrator says, "Glimpses of it mostly came like a locomotive train treading tracks of hope, with black coal in its heart and loud elephantine toot.”
The Simile of Iya Olode
The narrator and his friends are at the river fishing tadpoles secretly beyond the knowledge of their parents. However, the older adult catches up with them, and he gets furious at their behavior. He tries to tell them what they are doing is not right, but the boys laugh at him. The narrator and his friends compare this old man to a madwoman when they say, "This man is just like a Iya Olode, the madwoman who people say is even worse.”
The Simile of the blunt snout
Ikenna and his friends walk in defiance of the woman who asked why they came to her compound. They walk behind the compound filled with banana branches. The narrator compares the banana branches' bowing to a blunt snout when he says, "We took the short turn behind a compound where the branch of a banana tree, snapped in a storm, bowed like the blunt snout of a porpoise.”
As calm as prisoners
The narrator and his friends are running away from the river when they had gone fishing. On the way, Ikenna is behaving strangely, and Solomon thinks that Ikenna's strange behavior is due to the prophecy of the crazy man about his possible death. As they try to run away, they suspect that Mama Iyabo is looking at them. To ensure that they are not caught, they pass calmly as prisoners. The narrator says, "She called out at us as we passed, calm as prisoners.”
The Simile of the Bone
When the narrator's mother realizes that her sons are fishermen behind her back, she gets annoyed and denies them dinner. She is angry and tells them that they do not deserve to eat in her house. The river where the narrator and his brothers go fishing is dangerous, and no parent would wish to find their child fishing there. She shuts the kitchen door and tells the boys to eat the fish they caught from the dangerous river. Her words sound like poison when injected into the bone. The narrator says, "And every word that fell from her mouth that night, every sound she made, penetrated our minds like poison to the bone.”
