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What are some metaphors in the first twenty pages of Silent Spring?

In Chapter 1, "A Fable for Tomorrow," Rachel Carson uses an extended metaphor to describe a town in America that lives "in harmony with its surroundings." This idyllic town stands for the state of the environment before the widespread use of chemicals in America. Then, using another metaphor, she describes a "blight" that creeps over the land and changes it, sickening livestock and people. In a later metaphor, Carson describes a "stillness" that develops in which no birds are heard chirping and those that still live are unable to fly. The roadsides, once beautiful, are covered with desiccated vegetation "as though swept with fire" (this is an example of a simile, a comparison that uses "like" or "as" and is a kind of metaphorical language). The blight and stillness that Carson writes about are metaphors for the damage that pesticides and other toxins are causing in the environment. 

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