In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson Is Buried

A simile compares two unsimilar concepts by linking them with like or as. Communication between the narrator and friend is almost never straightforward. Instead, meaning is constructed through comparing something familiar with something unfamiliar. Because mortality, death, and the afterlife cannot be elucidated in language, participants must use an imperfect substitute. Thus, the friend says she “feel[s] like hell” (7).

Foreshadowing occurs when small clues hint at a key plot point or resolution. The mention of a cemetery in the story’s title, the narrator’s memory of the friend who worked in a mortuary (2), the allusion to Kübler-Ross’s philosophy of coming to terms with death (3), and references to earthquakes are all ways that the friend’s death is implied.

Moreover, the narrator’s thoughts hint at the loss she will suffer because of her friend’s prognosis. As they watch a movie laying in hospital beds laid side-by-side, the narrator enjoys their camaraderie but alludes to a sad outcome: “I missed her already” (8). When the narrator recalls the earthquake both survived earlier, she remembers their lighthearted solution to avoiding another one. The memory is tinged with sadness, however, as the narrator thinks that the friend will not live long enough to experience another earthquake: “I could not say that now—next” (5).