The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox

“The squares at the bottom are worn free of paint and you can see the different layers of colour inside each other, like rings in a tree.”

The layers of paint on the window suggest the place in this quote has been around for a long time. O’Farrell uses a simile to compare the paint layers to tree rings, giving the reader a visual and tactile sense of the window. The rings of a tree can reveal not only the age of a tree, but also the trauma the tree has endured; similarly, the layers of paint symbolize Esme’s layers of trauma.

“There is a zoetrope inside her head and she doesn’t like to be caught out when it stops. Whir, whir. Stop.”

A zoetrope is an old-fashioned device used by children; it spins through a series of images that can be seen through a viewfinder. Esme’s memories flow through her mind like the images in a zoetrope, and she fears the moment the device will stop (or won’t). The author also employs onomatopoeia in describing the sound of the zoetrope’s movement.

“Slap shunt slap shunt slap shunt.”

Esme is attentive to sounds linked to her memories. She remembers visiting her mother and father in the garden, as her sister Kitty jump ropes in the distance. Using onomatopoeia, the author describes the sound of the jump rope hitting the ground, a discordant sound compared to the relative peace of the garden.