Just so you know...
A simile is comparing something with something else using 'like' or 'as' (for example - I swam in the sea like a fish or my room is like a tip).
A metaphor is a word or phrase that compares something with something else (for example - his heart is metal or my room is a tip). Hope this makes sense!
1. The road was as curvy as a snake - Simile
2. My mum told me that my room is like a pigsty - Simile
3. Mike is like a scared kitten as he enters the haunted house - Simile
Hope I helped!
It's been a while since I've read the book and I don't really a lot of the context, so just from this passage I would say it says he notices nice houses and other people's wealth and maybe envies them a little bit. (although you don't get that explicitly from this passage.)
It is ela. The punctuation go with the sentence or the grammar would be wrong! Good luck.
