There are endless examples of figurative language in Michael Shaara's Civil War novel, The Killer Angels. Figurative language can include a variety of literary devices, including the simile, metaphor, cliche, personification, hyperbole, etc.
Examples:
- ... the dust hung above the army like a yellow veil. (Harrison, Part 1, Chapter 1). This simile compares the thick dust to a colored veil.
- ... he awoke to a murderous sun (Chamberlain, Part 1 Chapter 2). The sun cannot literally murder in this personification, since murder is a human trait.
- He felt an eerie fragility, like a piece of thin glass in a high hot wind (Chamberlain, Part 1, Chapter 2). This simile compares his fragile state of mind to a piece of glass about to be broken in a strong wind.
- The great roar was composed of a thousand different rips and whispers... like a great orchestra of death (Part 4, Chapter 3). The first part is a hyperbole, an exaggeration of the roar of battle; the second part is a simile, comparing the noise to an orchestra.