Memories
At the heart of the book, as might be expected, is the importance—the essential vitality—of memories. As a result, throughout can be found metaphorical imagery which seeks to underscore this foundational element of the thematic expression of memories and the need to protect them from external policing:
“My memories don’t feel as though they’ve been pulled up by the root. Even if they fade, something remains. Like tiny seeds that might germinate again if the rain falls. And even if a memory disappears completely, the heart retains something. A slight tremor or pain, some bit of joy, a tear.”
Self-Description
Self-description by characters in dialogue spoken from one to another is not usually a place in a novel where you will find most of the metaphorical imagery. Even though most people naturally speak in metaphor, in written what sounds perfectly natural can come across as stilted and forced. Unless, of course, the character speaking is a novelist plies in the trade of language:
“When I stand here in front of the cabinet, my heart feels like a silkworm slumbering in its cocoon.”
Setting
The use of similes and the comparisons they allow writers to make are especially useful when it comes to describing setting in a way that makes it more immediately tangible to the sense. Just one simple little comparison is sometimes all it takes to convey a wealth of information that would require many more words otherwise:
“The bed was clearly too narrow, and there was nothing to brighten the room, neither flowers nor music nor anything else. It was as though the air around him and the air in the room had gone stale, having failed to blend together.”
Trite but True
Some metaphorical phrases have been so over-utilized as to become trite and hackneyed. Neither of those qualities reduce the truthfulness, however, so they still stand ready to be called upon for use as the occasion demands. Especially if a writer can add a little bit of an original tweak to undo the quality of triteness:
“Time is a great healer. It just flows on all of its own accord.”
Book Burning
The burning of books is, ironically, one of the most difficult images to effectively convey in a book. Writing about fire just will simply never have the same effect as any visual representation. In order to even come close, metaphorical imagery is an absolutely requirement:
“The flames, like some enormous living creature, shot up to the sky, higher than the streetlights, higher than the telephone poles…moon and the stars were nowhere to be seen, as though they had been scattered by the brilliance of the flames, and only the corpses of burned books lit the sky.”
