What metaphors are used in Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively?

In Chapter Eleven, there is a connection to be made between Claudia’s abstract thoughts and the story she is telling. A nation with clear borders, she tells us, is a nation that does not have to deal with the complexities of blurred identities and transgressed boundaries. This observation is pertinent, in a metaphorical sense, to
the relationship between Claudia and Gordon. The boundary between brother and sister is blurred between them and they transgress the norm that prohibits sexual relations between siblings. Claudia explains their sexual attraction for each other emerges from their narcissism. Each sees in the other a reflection of himself, and, for that reason, the incestuous relationship is essentially a relationship of self-love. The infinite regress of Claudia’s relationship with Gordon contrasts sharply with the relationship she is to have later with Tom. In Tom’s presence, she is humbled and often at a loss for words. Tom is, for Claudia, a radically other person. He is not a reflection of her, but an encounter, and for this reason what she shared with Tom affects her and remains with her in a way her experience with Gordon, however significant, does not.