Flight Behavior

by Barbara Kingsolver

everything that came next was nonsensical, like a torrential downpour in a week of predicted sunshine that floods out the crops and the well-made plans.

Simile

The disaster is the failed expectation.

Heartbreak, broken family. Broke, period.

Haha

Haha

Dellarobia

Luca della Robbia (1399/1400–1482) was an Italian sculptor from Florence. Della Robbia is noted for his colorful, tin-glazed terracotta statuary, a technique which he invented and passed on to his nephew Andrea della Robbia and great-nephews Giovanni della Robbia and Girolamo della Robbia. ~ Wikipedia See loc. 1760 OR, Dellarobia she was to be, like the wreath in the magazine. loc. 1411 Dellarobia’s mother: Seamstress, loc. 2527 slave-children-in-China loc. 2628

piece of work. As if she were lying in pieces on a table,

Simile

the dimensions of an expensive jewel rather than an inconsequential adult.

Something between tomatoes and a ladybug. And her skin. He called her “Peach.”

Her performance to date was not what the Savior prescribed.

Haha

marrying young, of course. That was the Lord’s way for a girl with big dreams but no concrete plans, especially if a baby should be on the way.

Haha

that first one that came in its red pelt of fur was a mean wild thing like her.

just to fill a hole nobody meant to dig in the first place.

Making things up was beneath her.

an orange butterfly on a rainy day. Its out-of-place brashness

Haha

the Christmas Tree Farm,

The fir forest had its own spooky weather, as if these looming conifers held an old grudge, peeved at being passed over.

Simile

Haha

The wetter summers and mild winters of recent years were bringing in new pests that apparently ate the forest out of house and home.

Climate

Haha

a big soft quilt and a bottle of Cold Duck. Lord love a duck, she thought.

Haha

Simile

Simile

Haha

The forest blazed with its own internal flame.

Haha

nothing else present made sense.

Simile

sane.

words from Scripture that occupied a certain space in her brain but no longer carried honest weight,

Haha

Bible - Ezekiel 1:13 - As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire, and like the appearance of lamps: it went up and down among the living creatures; and the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning. KJV In the middle of[a] the living creatures there was something that looked like burning coals of fire, like torches moving to and fro among the living creatures; the fire was bright, and lightning issued from the fire. NRSV [a] Heb And the appearance of.

Simile

Simile

Metaphor - simile

This consternation swept the mountain in perfect silence.

Simile

Her thoughts clotted

Haha?

Simile

Haha

she had failed to take his measure.

She paled at the size her foolishness had attained, how large and crowded and devoid of any structural beams.

Similes

Fascination curled itself around her fright.

Simile

She had no use for superstition, had walked unlucky roads until she’d just as soon walk under any ladder as go around it, and considered herself unexceptional. By no means was she important enough for God to conjure signs and wonders on her account. What had set her apart, briefly, was an outsize and hellish obsession. To stop a thing like that would require a burning bush, a fighting of fire with fire.

Simile

The life she had recently left for dead was still waiting.