The striking imagery of the hospital
In the hospital corridor at night, the image of the shining light is brought out through the employment of a simile. In particular, the writer compares the milky radiance that engulfed the corridor at night to light from a shining moon: “A strange milky radiance shone in a hospital corridor at night, like moonlight on some deserted street.”
Gathered skin
The section of the arm of Laurel’s father exposed and lying on the bed is vividly explained including its softness and gathered nature. The writer employs a simile in presenting the congregated nature of Laurel’s father’s skin, comparing it to a woman’s sleeve. While pointing to old age, the simile also enhances the conception of the image of the gathered skin: “Her father’s right arm was free of the cover and lay out on the bed. It was bare to the shoulder, its skin soft and gathered, like a woman’s sleeve.”
The sliding bottle
As the people in the room are deeply engrossed in conversation, they are ignorant and unaware of the passing time. As the man on the couch drops the bottle onto the ground, a simile is used to enhance the visualization of its rolling as it passes. The writer notes: “…as the man on the couch, whose dangling hand now let the bottle drop and slide like an empty slipper across the floor into Laurel’s path.”
The imagery of the buds
Travelling in the train sets of Laurel’s imaginations and she envisions the last of the beech travelling along with them. The beech tree is set strategically deep in the swamp “where the black trees were welling with buds like red drops.” The use of the simile enhances imagery of the buds on the black trees while also bringing to the reader’s attention Laurel’s imaginative nature as all of these are in her head.
The deep boom
The intensity of the deep boom following the closure of the hearse door is brought out through the particular employment of a simile. When the sound is compared to the rolling in of an ocean wave, the perception of its deep and power is heightened: “There was a deep boom, like the rolling in of an ocean wave.”
