The figurative language author Joseph Bruchacuses includes comparisons with similes and metaphors, analogies, and visual imagery.

When Ned Begay is describing his father, he emphasizes his height using a simile, a comparison using "like" or "as": "he seemed tall as a lodgepole pine."

Another simile is used as Ned prepares to leave with his uncle on his way to enter boarding school. His mother waves goodbye to him, her waving hand "floated as gracefully as a butterfly."

Ned also describes his uncle's face as both kindly and rough, "as hard and craggy as the rocks."

In one passage, Bruchac uses an analogy along with a metaphor. He speaks about learning archery to make a point about broader life lessons. He also compares written words to shadows:

The motion of drawing back a bow and sending an arrow straight into a target takes only a split second, but it is a skill many years in the making. So it is with a life, anyone's life. I may list things that might be described as my accomplishments in these few pages, but they are only shadows of the larger truth

Bruchac also uses visual imagery, often through mentioning colors and their related associations. At night Ned sees the "silver moon," and when he reaches school, he thinks the white admissions officer's reddened skin "seems to be burning."