What would be a detailed close reading on this passage from In the Lake of the Woods? I need to use literary devices."The thought formed as a...

If your analysis needs to refer to literary devices, your
starting point needs to be identifying literary devices that are employed in the quote
you are trying to analyse. Let us begin by focusing on the quote you have given. There
is clearly a simile used to describe the thought, which is compared to "an enormous
white mountain." However, there is also an implied metaphor in the way that the mountain
rushing down on him is implicitly compared to "disgrace." I am not familiar with the
book, but it is clear that this character has just done something or had something found
out that has ruined his life's quest, which he describes as climbing the "enormous white
mountain." Now, that quest or journey has come to an end, he feels, with everything
"rushing down on him," symbolising the disgrace that now covers his life and his name.
The way that he has been climbing this mountain "all his life" emphasises how important
a goal this has been for him: he has devoted his entire life to this task and journey.
Now, in one instant, everything comes crashing down around him.