“A Bird’s eye panorama” - “The Street of Crocodiles”
The narrator explicates, “It was a whole folio sheaf of parchment pages which, originally fastened with strips of linen formed an enormous map, a bird’s eye panorama.” The metaphor of ‘a bird’s eye panorama’ indicates that the map expansively delineates all the city’s localities. The delineations of the map are congruent with the physical realism of the city.
“Village Squares” - “The Street of Crocodiles”
The narrator describes, “the roadway is made, like village squares, of beaten clay, full of puddles and overgrown with grass.” The metaphoric ‘village square’ renders the road low-class for it is neither tarmacked nor appropriately preserved. Although the street is positioned in a district that is clamoring for metropolitan eminence, it does not certify the gauge for the metropolitan roads that would further suave passage for both vehicles and pedestrians. The road looks like a passage within a village instead of an urban background.
Plague - “The Street of Crocodiles”
The narrator explicates, “A black market in railway tickets and bribery in general are special plagues in our city.” The allegorical plague portrays bribery in the railway system as ubiquitous. The entities interested in obtaining the train tickets must submit to the crocodile of subornment, for a bribe is a prerequisite for a train ticket.
Torture - “Cockroaches”
The narrator’s mother equates the obstinate interrogations apropos the narrator’s father to torture: “Don’t torture me, darling. I have told you already that Father is away, travelling all over the country: he now has a job as a commercial traveller. You know that he sometimes comes home at night and goes away again before dawn.” The narrator’s queries plague his mother because they remind her of her husband’s disastrous illness. She agonizes over her husband’s ailment and ensuing demise.
