Literary Elements/Figurative Language

Metaphor: In Rain of Gold, the author uses lots of metaphors. He says, "Then the sun, the right eye of God, was going down behind the towering cliffs." He often relates major objects on earth or in the universe to God. He does this because Lupe's Family is very religious. He wants to express this as often as he can, while being coy about it. He does this to the point at which the reader doesn't notice the subtleness of it. Some figurative language the author uses is when he says "Her mother was sitting at the end of the bed, surrounded by long spears of silvery moonlight coming through the cracks in their lean-to."  The long spears is the figurative part. Its a good simple way of expressing moonlight through a crack, though they are obviously not spears. These simple was of expressing things are also a good way to relate to Lupe. At 6 years old, it is understandable how she would think of the world this way. The figurative language and metaphors used by Villasenor are very well used. He really captures the idea of his characters and their setting.