I felt like I wasfloating, like maybe I could fly. I wanted to be a HumanCannonball while I was still little enough to be thrownthrough the air
Simile - feeling like you could fly to represent the feeling of being weightless with relief after everything is resolved. Human cannonball represents that she only has a little bit of childhood left through the literally concept of weight, and outgrowing it.
Sonya embraces childhood - may as well enjoy it whilst you still can!
couldn’t believe what I saw. Un-cle Bernie and Uncle Kelvin were in the swimming pool,flinging my brother into the air. Toby was laughing, hisscrawny limbs going mad. I watched Kelvin catch himand hoist him, sending him hurtling back to Bernie again.My uncles were grinning, calling out to each other, whis-tling and clapping their hands. I stared at them in won-der, my heart beating hard.
Sonya is old enough to know that everyone relaxing means the problem has now been solved. And watching Toby play Human Cannonball specifically represents that childhood has been preserved. But how????
Toby laughing and water splashing: it was the sound ofHuman Cannonball!
Right after this realisation - Human Cannonball is still happening.
If her losing the tooth represents her losing a bit of her childhood, then human cannonball represents the bit of childhood she still has left!
Hu-man Cannonball with us in the pool.
This is the first mention of Human Cannonball. We don't know it yet, but it kinda ends up representing the freedom of childhood.
I used to wish I would never come down, that I couldstay in the sky forever. I wished the Christmas holidayswould not end, that we’d never make the long journeyback to the ordinary world. I wished that Santa Fe wasmy home, and that I could spend my life chasing skinksand picking frangipani and soaring through the air.
The literal feeling of freedom (flying through the air) is being using to represent the figurative feeling of freedom (being a child and having idyllic holidays with no problems)