The getai
To illustrate how boisterous the city has become, the narrator compares the old-fashioned street operas with the new-generation live stage performances by referring to the Kallang River, which now also moves faster: “These days, however, like the slow-flowing Kallang River that had given way to the rapid Kallang Canal, the street operas had given way to getai in which scantily clad women sang and danced, not for the gods but for the younger devotees who loved MTV.”
The effects of a story
The effects of a story to the listener’s unconscious are compared to a pebble, illustrating how a single tale affects a wide range of parts of the psyche until the memory of the story disappears but its effects stay: “A story is like a pebble. You fling it into the lake and its ripples spread in ever-widening circles as it sinks to the bottom of our unconscious. There it stays forever. That’s why stories are dangerous, right or not? They mould our lives.”
The mother-in-law
After Noi Noi marries Gek Sim, the narrator emphasizes her aunt’s disapproval by comparing her to a caricature of the theater: “My aunt was a terrible mother-in-law. She ruled the house in Irvine Road like those matriarchs you see in Cantonese opera.” Indeed, her behavior seems overly dramatic at times, in particular when she throws “a whole pot of chicken curry onto the floor because she didn’t like the way Gek Sim had cooked it.”
Gek Sim's gambling addiction
Gek Sim’s tendency to lose money as soon as she gets it is illustrated by comparing money to water, which is impossible to hold: “Gek Sim was a gambler. Very addicted, I tell you. Had to gamble every day. Lost money like water through the fingers.”
Dead Big Fatty
Due to a number of similes, the image of Dead Big Fatty conveys a sense of danger. For example, he “held the cigarette smoke in his mouth for a few seconds before letting it seep out through his lips and nostrils. Like a dragon breathing smoke.” Moreover, the jade stone in his gold ring “had gleamed like a threat.”
