Bazil Coutts as a Dog (Simile)
After Geraldine's attack, she is shaken and traumatized. She is unable to leave her bed or resume any of her household activities, which deeply affects Bazil and Joe. Bazil wants for his wife to return to normal, and he enters her room hoping to coerce her out of her depression. However, upon entering the bedroom, Geraldine resists her husband's advances. Bazil "lowers himself, like a dog that knows it isn't welcome, onto the end of the bed." In this movement, Bazil tries to distance himself from his masculinity in order for Geraldine to feel more comfortable and less triggered.
A Lone Paddler (Metaphor)
In an effort to help Geraldine, Bazil demands that the Coutts family have dinner together every night. Although Geraldine is bed-bound, Bazil brings a table into the bedroom each evening and gathers the family around his wife's bedside. Bazil tries to maintain a level of conversation every night, "[forging] on, a lone paddler on an endless lake of silence, or maybe rowing upstream." This metaphor addresses how each individual family member has been uniquely affected by Geraldine's attack. Although Bazil, Joe, and Geraldine are navigating the residual effects of the same event, each character must handle their own trauma while also dealing with the pain of their other family members. Through her choice of metaphor, Erdrich describes the isolation and loneliness each character feels.
A Pop-Eyed Porcupine (Metaphor)
When the reader is first introduced to the character of Linda Wishkob, she is metaphorically described as being like a "pop-eyed porcupine, even down to her fat little long-nailed paws." Porcupines, with their quills, are full of symbolism. A porcupine's quills are buoyant, thus signifying their adaptability and resilience. Linda has long been characterized as unattractive and undesirable, and her physicality has deeply affected how she has been treated since birth. However, Linda remains generous and loving, and she is able to navigate her life despite the hand she has been dealt.
Sonja's Pillow (Simile)
After Joe's home becomes an unpleasant environment, he begins to sleep on Sonja and Whitey's couch. Each night, Sonja gives him a pillow off her own bed. Joe describes the pillow as smelling of "apricot shampoo and also a dusky undertone—some private erotic decay like the inside of a wilted flower." Sonja is unable to escape her sexualization, and her comparison to a wilted flower is riddled with sexual innuendos. The wilted flower symbolizes Sonja's aging, and thus the decay of her sexual desirability.
Ancient Goddess (Simile)
When Joe walks in on Mooshum receiving a striptease dance from Sonja, he is shocked by his aunt's appearance. He likens Sonja to "an ancient goddess about to sacrifice a goat." This is one of Joe's first sexual experiences, and he is profoundly impacted. Joe is unable to process Sonja in this context, and he distances himself from his relationship to her by comparing her to an unattainable figure.
