Contrast (metaphor)
The narrator’s father was an alcoholic, and the narrator states this fact clearly, with no decorations. When his father's feet have been cut off, the narrator stays with his father after the surgery and tries to be useful. And when after the surgery his father lies “on white sheets in a white hallway under white lights” the white color gives an impression of illumination of “his decades of poor health and worse decisions”. The contrast of white, which is supposed to mean clear, is given to “poor health and worse decisions” which could not be so good of an alcoholic with years of experience.
To have courage (metaphor)
The old man in the hospital sang a healing song over the blanket for the narrator’s father. But the singing was not very good; indeed, it was really bad. The narrator assumed that “if one had the balls to sing healing songs in hospital hallways, then one should have a great voice”. “Having balls” has a metaphoric meaning for having courage to do something.
Disease (metaphor)
When a child, the narrator suffered of hydrocephalus, which is a serious disease that may damage the brain. The narrator calls this disease metaphorically “the obese, imperialistic water demon” that nearly killed him when he was a baby.
Hospital (simile)
The narrator compares the hospital to a beehive: “This place is like a beehive with colony-collapse disorder.” All the “bees” are people who suffer of lack of health.
