 Hughes Davies argues that from the outset of , the gap between words and reality is exemplified through onomatopoeia, simile and repetition of phrases.Knightly notes that "animistic elements surface occasionally in the characters' stream of consciousness".For example, in the chapter "Tohil's Dance", Tohil, the God of Rain in Maya mythology, is imagined by Angel Face as arriving "riding on a river of pigeons' breasts which flowed like milk".