At the end of chapter one, Carson uses the metaphor of a "grim specter" that has "crept upon us" with a blight that is poisoning the environment and killing plant and animal life.

In chapter two, Carson quotes Albert Schweitzer's metaphor; he said "man can hardly even recognize the devils of his own creation" in reference to nuclear weaponry. Schweitzer and Carson express the idea metaphorically that this technology is evil.

At the end of chapter two, Carson characterizes the responses to public protests against chemical companies as "little tranquilizing pills of half truths" and "the sugar coating of unpalatable facts." She asserts that it is humanity's right to know the full truth about the use of pesticides because it is humanity's "obligation to endure" as a species.

At the beginning of chapter three, Carson metaphorically describes the chemical industry as "a child of the Second World War," as she points out that chemicals designed to kill people were first tested on insects.

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.