In addition to smell, other senses are elicited by these metaphors as the cadaver was "making a Velcro-like sound"" (78) throughout the dissection process. Readers can vividly imagine the, "slippery touch that pickles your fingertips into ridges, as if you'd been in the tub all day"" (70) which promotes a complementary relationship with doctors via real life examples. The skin of the corpse is dehumanized and detached from life again as they are compared to fruit; "thick as a grapefruit rind"" (78). Yet, despite this unique experience of dissection that many do not experience during a time in their life, medical students claim "You knew these hollows like home " (72). In this way, readers can recognize this experience as something familiar, despite the atypical nature of the activity. Metaphors also allude to the inhumane, barbaric nature of cadaver dissections as the body is "picked over by cannibals, hungry for learning"" (72). Additionally, empathy for the human is ignored and instead overlooked as his "useful death fed you. His meat, preserved above ground, formed a feast, served on a silver table"" (79). Comparing the dissection to a feast is repulsive, yet accurately depicts the frenzy that embodies this experience. The metaphors implemented in "The Cadaver,"" draw unlikely comparisons that evoke senses of the readers, and allow them to begin to understand these unique experiences via the commonplace comparisons seen throughout. .
There are a multitude of metaphors that specifically allude to war that allow the reader to generate a parallel, as medical students are "as among soldiers nearing the enemy front"" (71). In a ghastly way, we see the inhumane acts of medical professionals generating a sense of competition as they engage in, "territorial battles over forearms and hearts"" (73). These extended metaphors generate a war-like environment as the medical students fail to recognize the life that once consumed the body, and instead view it as a toy.
