"Killer Camera" Figurative Language

Quotations of Figurative Language in "Killer Camera"

1. Page 36. The quote, "…but this time it [the object] stayed in his mind… well, like a photograph." is a simile. This quotation is comparing the clarity of his memory of the objects in the trunk like a photograph. It is saying that he remembered the objects so vividly, it was like he took a picture of the objects and was looking at the picture. Instead, Horrowitz could have just said "I could remember the objects clearly." However, saying it that way makes not only the book boring, but the passage rather unimaginable. Many readers can maybe detect that he remembered the objects, but how clearly did he exactly remember the objects? Adding the simile, "like a photograph" shows the readers exactly how much. So clear and unforgettable it is just like a photograph.
2. Page 45. The quote, "-a strange tingling at the back of his neck, as one after another, the hairs stood on end." is a personification. It is comparing the hairs to humans. Because hairs cannot really stand, using the figurative language "the hairs stood on end" just means that it felt like they were straight, a feeling one gets when someone gets nervous or scared. Otherwise, the quote could have read "I was scared" or "I was nervous". Once again, the reader cannot picture how much. How scared/nervous was he? He was so scared/nervous that hair stood on end all of a sudden.
3. Page 47. The quote, "He was still feeling sick. It was as if he had been half-strangled or punched in the pit of his stomach." is a simile. It is comparing the weird feeling of his stomach to the feeling one gets when one is punched in the stomach. the author is trying to describe, or even emphasize, Matthew's sickness. By adding "as if he had been half-strangled or punched in the pit of his stomach", readers can actually imagine, or even feel (at least feel the area) the sickness or the pain that Matthew feels at the time, rather than just knowing that he is sick.