Washington Irving’s use of the third-person omniscient narrator in "Rip Van Winkle" affect the meaning and development of the story

This is a dominant and controlling argument

Which poetic techniques are illustrated in the opening lines “i am fourteen/and my skin has betrayed me/the boy i cannot live without/still sucks his thumb/in secret”? alliteration and metaphor allusion and alliteration apostrophe and simile personification and enjambment

How would you check a statement to determine that it is a simile?