With that, she pounced upon me, like an eagle on a lamb, and my face was squeezed into wooden bowls in sinks, and my head was put under taps of water-butts, and I was soaped, and kneaded, and towelled, and thumped, and harrowed, and rasped, until I really was quite beside myself.
– Charles Dickens
Great Expectations, Chapter 7. With this animal simile, one can visualize the speed and ferocity with which Mrs. Joe grabs young Pip to roughly wash him. She is the ferocious eagle and he the victim lamb in the operation. We are provided with a snapshot of Pip’s rough growing up.