The most predominant type of figurative language is Karana's standard use of metaphor to describe her surroundings.  She teases her brother for doing this very thing in Chapter 1, but the reader soon learns that Karana uses metaphor often and naturally as a part of her normal speech patterns. She also uses personification, especially of animals, to describe her time alone. The animals she "adopts" as pets during her years on the island become her family, and she describes them as individuals with thoughts and feelings who regard her actions as people would.