Alice In Wonderland Metaphor
The military hospital where Rivers works was previously a children's hospital before the war and the walls are adorned with pictures of distorted figures from "Alice In Wonderland". This is a metaphor for the distorted patients that Rivers sees on a daily basis. He calls the murals "Alice in Hysterialand" and they are metaphorical of the way in which the war sends men home who still have all of their original characteristics and look the same from the outside, but are re-shaped and distorted from the way they were originally meant to be by their experiences.
Dentist Simile
"Rivers extracted his memories from him, one by one, like a dentist pulling teeth."
This simile shows the reader two things; firstly, that getting Prior to share his memories is like "pulling teeth" in that they do not come forth voluntarily or easily, but with insistence and force on the part of Rivers. This simile also shows that despite the appearance of each appointment being conversational, and organic in the way different subjects emerge and are discussed, Dr Rivers actually has a precise plan of action for each patient, and in the case of Prior, knows exactly how to extract each individual memory with precision and certainty. The action of pulling out each memory is painful, like having a tooth removed.
Overcoat Metaphor
Billy observest that because of the physical conditions, his penis is smaller than usually expected before sex, and that the condom is too big. He likens this to a kid, wearing his father's overcoat, meaning that he as the kid has put on something that is clearly too big for him in a fruitless effort to look more grown up, or bigger, than he actually is.
Octopus Metaphor
In the missionary village, Rivers learns that the natives believe that Taru's complaint is caused by an octopus that has taken up residence in the lower intestine, and whose tentacles will then spread until they reach the throat, and strangle Taru to death. The octopus is a metaphor for cancer, which they do not understand or have knowledge of, the tumors spreading like the tentacles of the octopus whose body is a metaphor for the original tumor.
Otter Simile
"He is like an aquatic animal, an otter, returning to its burrow, greeting its mate nose to nose, curling up safe, warm, dark, wet."
Prior likens himself to an otter who needs to return to the familiar when it comes to sex in order to feel safe and taken care of. Otters are creatures who mate with the same otter repeatedly and this shows an anxiousness in Prior to return to the same woman again and again, needing to feel safe in the familiarity of the relationship. Prior is also like an animal in that he finds the act of sex itself reassuring.
