A ball (Simile)
The moment the narrator realizes that she has been living a reckless life in her twenties and thirties; she compares herself to a ball. The narrator says, "I felt like I was a ball, and someone was playing pinball really hard with me. I was shooting all over the place, the board lighting up and the music playing." The simile signifies the narrator's realization that she should change and adopt a healthier lifestyle. Throughout her twenties and thirties, the narrator has been drinking alcohol, smoking, and eating uncontrollably. As the narrator approaches her fortieth birthday, she abandons her reckless lifestyle.
The Cat Empire (Simile)
The narrator compares the band's sound to The Cat Empire. The narrator says, "A band that sounded like The Cat Empire playing for hours in a backstreet of the French Quarter under shifting shafts of sunlight, mint juleps, martinis, shots of bourbon - approximately – on Bourbon Street, Jazz bars, gumbo." The simile shows the entertaining nature of New Orleans, where the narrator is currently launching her journalism assignment. The narrator is a partying girl, and she instantly gets intrigued when she discovers several entertainment joints in the streets of New Orleans.
The simile of the wellness industry
The narrator says the wellness industry is like a spinning wheel because of its repetitive tactics for creating wealth. The narrator says, "From a distance, the wellness industry can seem like a spinning wheel for caged mice: on and on we run, focused on our own individualistic goals, looking straight ahead, running, running, running." The caged mice in this simile refer to people looking forward to achieving a perfect body by observing the rules of the wellness industry. However, the narrator notes that the wellness industry is a money-minting sector taking advantage of the growing demand for slim bodies. Therefore, people are ready to achieve perfect bodies regardless of the financial implications, leaving the sector extremely rich.
