At the beginning of The Return of the Soldier, Jenny uses a simile to characterize Kitty's narcissistic behavior. The two women are sitting in Baldry Court's nursery, discussing why they haven't heard from Chris, who is fighting in WWI. When Jenny expresses her worry, Kitty dismisses her:
And then it was that Kitty wailed, “Ah, don’t begin to fuss,” and bent over her image in her hand-mirror as one might bend for refreshment over scented flowers.
In this passage, Jenny compares Kitty's manner of looking at herself in the mirror to the way other people "bend for refreshment" toward flowers. Although the comparison specifically describes Kitty's action of bending over the mirror, it also links her to the figurative "scented flowers"—just as flowers provide comfort and beauty, so too does Kitty's reflection, at least to herself.
Occurring early in The Return of the Soldier, this comparison associates Kitty with feminine ease, elegance, and wealth, a pattern that will continue throughout the novel. But while the comparison might seem like a flattering one, it subtly alerts the reader to Kitty's character flaws. Like Kitty, Jenny is highly attuned to beauty, and relies on beautiful things for comfort in difficult times. But she looks outward for beauty, finding it in the grounds of Baldry Court, in her cousin Chris, and especially in Kitty's appearance and mannerisms, and her observant attitude makes her an effective narrator. In this passage, she's able to make an astute comment about Kitty's behavior because she is so attuned to her beauty. By contrast, Kitty only cares about her own beauty, valuing beauty in other people and objects only insofar as they augment her own appearance and, by extension, her social status. In this sense, the simile hints at Kitty's obsession with her own looks even as it seems to flatter her.
Later in the novel, Jenny's acquaintance with Margaret makes her disillusioned with Kitty and skeptical of her attitude towards beauty. At one point, she compares Kitty to "a polished surface that reflects light" while describing Margaret as a lamp that emanates light. This simile early in the novel lays the groundwork for that damning comparison, setting the reader up to understand Kitty's preoccupation with personal appearance as a sign of her lack of moral depth.
When Jenny first meets Margaret, she uses a simile to describe Margaret's shabby and, to her, almost disgraceful appearance:
She was repulsively furred with neglect and poverty, as even a good glove that has dropped down behind a bed in a hotel and has lain undisturbed for a day or two is repulsive [...]
In this passage, Jenny compares Margaret to a dirty and forgotten glove. It's especially important that, in Jenny's vision, the figurative glove has been forgotten "behind a bed in a hotel." In the novel, Jenny barely leaves the grounds of Baldry Court, and her sense of belonging on the estate is closely linked to her conception of class status and even her worth as a person. To someone deeply invested in this stationary way of life, the idea of staying in a hotel, among travelers of many different classes, might have seemed seedy or outright disreputable. Thus, although Jenny doesn't mention class here, the simile conveys the fact that the women are divided not just by wealth but also by social status. Jenny doesn't intend to be rude here—by describing Margaret as a "good glove," she's even conceding that she is not ugly but merely downtrodden by her circumstances—but the simile nevertheless reveals the narrator's inherent snobbery and the condescension with which she treats Margaret. Even when Jenny is trying to be open-minded, she instinctively connotes low social status with ugliness and even moral inferiority.
Although the glove in this passage is figurative, this simile fits into West's broader tactic of characterizing Margaret and Kitty through what they wear. It's also part of a motif in which West uses gloves or women's hands to describe life at Baldry Court. Elsewhere, Jenny says that the estate's grounds are as "well-kept as a woman's hand," and she reflects that Kitty has increased Chris's living expenses as carelessly "as a woman stretches a new glove on her hand." The use of gloves and hands to connote ease and luxury elsewhere in the novel sharpens the description of Margaret's poverty in this passage and widens the social gulf between her and the Baldry family.
While listening to Margaret tell the story of her first meeting with Chris, Jenny uses a simile to describe her cousin's appearance during his youth:
He possessed in great measure the loveliness of young men, which is like the loveliness of the spry foal or the sapling [...]
In this passage, Jenny compares the general beauty of young men (and the particular beauty of Chris himself) to "the loveliness of the spry foal or the sapling." It makes sense for Jenny to tie Chris's beauty to that of the plants and animals that populate Baldry Court; for her, the estate's grounds carry positive associations and are inextricably linked to Chris himself, as is evident from her belief that caring for the estate is a form of caring for Chris himself. Specifically comparing Chris to a young horse and a young tree, Jenny implies that his beauty derives from the inherent innocence of such creatures—and carries the poignancy of inevitable aging. Just as foals and saplings are in a state of growth and transformation, Chris is aging out of his untroubled youth and moving towards his more difficult adult life, even as he begins his relationship with Margaret. Especially since Jenny is making this comparison in hindsight, the simile suggests that youthful beauty is powerful and arresting precisely because it must eventually fade.
Moments like this also make clear to the reader that whether Jenny knows it or not, she's in love with Chris. The sensual and dynamic nature of this description gestures to Jenny's own sexuality, which, since she has no romantic relationships of her own, otherwise doesn't rise to the novel's surface. It's notable that, besides being extremely handsome and generally good-natured, Chris possesses few developed characteristics. He's an object of sexual desire for Kitty, Margaret, and Jenny, three women who are far more complex than him and who each desire to possess him in a different way. In this sense, West inverts traditional literary tropes, which held that only men felt and acted on sexual desire for women. In doing so, she's making a powerful statement about women's social roles, even as she keeps the novel firmly rooted in the domestic sphere.
