reference to well-known things

exaggeration

popular saying with figurative meaning

compares without like or as

sounds like what it describes

pair of words that doesn’t make sense

human traits to nonhuman things

play on double meaning of words

compares with like or as

 “Memory is an abstract painting.”

“I feel the chaotic emotions of adolescence, illusive as smoke, …”

 “Memory is an abstract painting.”

“Poverty was the cage in which we were all trapped.”

“Those days are ill-defined … like a water-color painting left out in the rain.”

“… in a mindless stupor, lulled by the monotonous squeak-squawk of the chair.”

“… still as stone …”

“We had to annoy her by whizzing a pebble into her flowers …”

“We must have made a tragicomic spectacle.”

“ ‘Zing’—Joey sent a pebble into the blooms.”