What are some examples of figurative language in The Road by Cormac McCarthy?

You might want to analyse some of the description of the
surrounding landscape that the novel contains. For example, figurative language is used
in the following piece of description:

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Slow water in the fat country. The slough by the
roadside motionless and grey. The coastal plain rivers in leaden serpentine across the
wasted farmland.

Note the way
that figurative language is used to compare the coastal plain rivers to leaden snakes
which is used to help us visualise the way the rivers meander across the landscape. The
way that they are compared to snakes also of course brings in an element of sinister
threat or of danger to the setting.

For one more example,
consider the description given when they enter an abandoned house and start a fire in
its fireplace.

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The flames lit the darkening glass of the window
where the boy stood in hooded silhouette like a troll come in from the
night.

The boy is compared
through use of a simile to a troll, which is in keeping with the mood of suspense and
terror of the novel, but also helps us understand that such a sight and such a feeling
of warmth are so alien to the boy, having walked around for so long with his father,
that he does not seem to fit in to such a "normal" domestic setting. Before lighting the
fire, the boy and the father brought in many "dead limbs" to light the fire, reinforcing
the novel's focus on death.

There are two examples for you.
Hopefully you will be able to go and find some others now. Good
luck!