Olive thought she had forgotten what pain could be. She was a railway tunnel in which a battering train had come to a fiery halt. She was a burrow in which a creature had wedged itself and could go neither forwards nor back.
Olive believed she had left her pain behind, but it returned with a vengeance, making her feel trapped and overwhelmed. The imagery of a railway tunnel suggests that she is caught in an emotional deadlock, similar to a train that has abruptly stopped inside it, leaving her feeling helpless and confined.
This sense of entrapment is further emphasized by the metaphor of a burrow where a creature is stuck, unable to move in any direction. Olive's experiences illustrate the struggle of dealing with past trauma and the difficulty of moving forward when burdened by intense feelings of confinement and despair.
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All the things you can talk about in anyone's work are the things that are least important.
Race of Cain, ascend to heaven, And cast God down upon the earth!
