Literary Devices

Simile:

She swallowed a lump, and her heart began to beat as if to the rhythm of a prayer: in times of troubles, do not O Father, look the other way.

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Like Christ, a symbol of compassion and mercy, the Devil is crucified. Unlike Christ, however, it is not God who frees him but an ominous and threatening group of men in suits. The vision is a metaphor for the nominal decolonization of the postcolonial state, followed by its subsequent neo-colonization.