Discuss a moment when Melchor opens a chapter with a simile in order to create a vivid picture of the chapter's setting.

In order to portray the jail where Brando finds himself in Chapter VI, Melchor opens the chapter with a unique and unmistakably vivid simile to denote the pain, loneliness, and isolation that characterize the setting. The chapter opens with screams from an unseen inmate begging for forgiveness from his mother. The narrator portrays his screams by stating, "He yowled like the dogs that drag themselves, run over but still breathing, to the roadside" (136).