Mule
Sophie proclaims: “ My mother isn’t the only person who is not thrilled for me to take this trip. My uncles Stew and Mo tried their best to talk me out of it. “It’s going to be a bunch of us guys, doing guy things, and it wouldn’t be a very pleasant place for a girl,” and “Wouldn’t you rather stay home, Sophie, where you could have a shower every day?” and “It’s a lot of hard work,” and yakkety-yak they went. But I was determined to go, and my mule-self kicked in, spouting a slew of sailing and weather terms.” The emblematic mule refers to a willpower that cannot decreased. Sophie herself is unwavering; she embarks on sailing despite the gigantic opposition she faces for she is a tenacious girl who would not be persuaded against effectuating her urges such as navigating.
Sleepy
Sophie narrates, “We used to live on the coast of Virginia, curling up against the ocean, but last year my parents came up with their Great Plan to move us to the countryside, because my mother was missing the Kentucky mountains in which she’d grown up. So we moved to this sleepy town, where the only water is the Ohio River, which is as sleepy as the town. People here sure love that river, but I don’t know why. It doesn’t have waves or tides. There are no crabs or jellyfish living in it. You can’t even see very much of it at a time, only a little stretch up to the next bend.” The metaphor sleepy renders the ‘Kentucky mountains’ a latent place due to the unreachability of marine life. Sophie fancies exploring vast oceans due to the tides that are integral there; the tides that she defies during the sailing delight her in a way that the trifling river would not.
Paradise
Sophie observes, “But for kids in my class, that river is like paradise, and they have had adventures on it and off it. They have fished in that river, swum in it, rafted down it. I want to do things like that, but I want to do them on the sea, out on the wide, wide ocean.” Ohio River is a seamless nirvana for Sophie’s peers who do not fancy cruising. The youngsters are gratified with the ecstasy that comes with ‘swimming, fishing and rafting’ in the river, ,but Sophie prefers a enormous water body for she considers it to be euphoric.
Slug
Cody grumbles, “My father is driving me bananas. He lies around like a slug and doesn’t help with anything and barks orders right and left. Sophie is lucky; she doesn’t have any parents to bug her.” The slug is a representation of indolence. Evidently, Cody’s father would rather assert guidelines on what Cody should fix instead of aiding him.
