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Have you ever thought about how your fruits and vegetables are grown? How about which ingredients are put into bug sprays and insecticides to ward off those pesky insects? Look no further because author Rachel Carson looks deep into the many environmental issues caused by pesticides and herbicides in her New York Times best-selling novel, “Silent Spring.” “Silent Spring” is a collection of studies which were performed in an effort to educate others about the harmful things occurring everyday to their foods and every-day environment in hopes of giving them a wake up call. This novel is thought by many to be a revolutionary novel that forced people to take notice of the harm being caused in their world, many of which people were unaware of. After discovering the results of these chemicals, it really makes one wonder, is the luxury of being insect free really worth all of the consequences? “Silent Spring” consists of research and experiments conducted to see why wildlife was decreasing in various chemically treated areas. Carson was also interested in discovering how these chemicals affect human health as well. Carson first starts our her novel describing a world of green grass and blue skies, complete with singing birds and active wildlife. A world she says, that is what our earth used to consist of before mankind. Carson states that her reasoning for writing this novel was out of curiosity as to why and how our earth became so corrupt. She narrows it down to one reason which is the main foundation for this novel, man-made chemicals are responsible for destroying the purity of nature. “The chemicals to which life is asked to make its adjustment are no longer merely the calcium and silica and copper and all the rest of the minerals... ... middle of paper ... ...ng”. I unfortunately am not an environmental junkie by any means, but this novel really opened my eyes to not only issues of the past, but also current matters as well. I learned the importance of what it means to buy organic and not only for the health benefits, but the environmental benefits as well. I was never aware of how harmful pesticides can be and although DDT may be outlawed in the United States, farmers still use other forms of insecticides to protect their plants. It horrors me that DDT was used for so long, despite the deaths it caused. I admire Rachel Carson for writing this novel and conducting research when no one else cared about the environmental harms placed on our land. Her passion about the earth is evident, and her willingness to put out such a controversial novel during this time period explains why her story is still a relevant resource today.
Rachel Carson, before publishing Silent Spring, would major in marine zoology at Pennsylvania Women's College, where she would develop her interest in the naturalism and conservation going on at the time (Lear, 23). After graduating, she would take a job at the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries, where she would write about different issues concerning the environment at the time. After writing several books to some success, she would begin work on Silent Spring, as she would find her naturalist causes to be her impetus. She even later on in her life wrote to her friends, What I discovered was that everything which meant most to me as a naturalist was being threatened, and that nothing I could do would be more important. " (Carson, 17)
To conclude, Rachel Carson is a skilled writer who employs many different rhetorical strategies and formats her information in a deliberate way to maximize the effectiveness of her argument. She appeals to emotion, but supplements her points with facts, examples, and expert opinions. Her book, Silent Spring, surely convinced many of the dangers of poisons like parathion, and inspired some to seek alternatives to aerial
The nonfiction story, “Silent Spring” expresses the idea of how we can change the future of the Earth by destroying it with pollution and not taking care and preserving it. “Everywhere was a shadow of death. The farmers spoke of much illness among their families. In the town the doctors had become more and more puzzled by new kinds of sickness appearing among their patients.” (Carson Page 168) Those few sentences catch attention of the readers and make them ponder what happened to the town and why it is the way it is. We all know from reading the whole story that this town is fictional, but the thought of it intrigued more people to have the desire to take care and clean up the Earth. If we were to all take part in the help to keep our Earth clean and waste as little as possible, it will be far off in the future before towns like this ever exist. That change is something we need to make, yet the majority has no motivation to take a step in doing so. The nonfiction atmosphere of this story makes the facts and predictions in the story more straight forward on why we need to change rather than the fiction since it isn’t true and is less believable. The fact that nonfiction is blunt in saying what needs to happen and why is the main reason it is more effective in expressing the
There are many issues regarding the raising and producing of various livestock animals, and the use of pesticides on various types of crops. The movie Food.Inc does a good job explaining these issues, but in a very biased way. It makes agriculturists look like terrible people, when this is not the case.
He delves into the history of the word “environmental” as well as the history of environmental activism. He pinpoints the beginning of the movement to Rachel Carson. According to Quammen, she began the revolution by publishing her book Silent Spring. He says the negative connotations of the word began with her book, pairing “environment” and “the survival of humankind” as if they go hand in hand. This played a major role in the distortion of the word and the intentions of environmentalists.
By citing credible organizations and offering her own eco-friendly alternatives, she proves to the reader that she takes a particular interest in the environment and is educated to speak on it. Pairing powerful understatements and hyperboles to contrast with one another show the reader that the practice is both needless and selfish. These rhetorical techniques have a powerful impact on the reader, whose ignorance prior to reading the excerpt can no longer suffices to excuse the lack of action. Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring is a deeply persuasive book that not only advocates for an end to pesticides but also speaks to the obligation humans hold to protect their
The genius of Rachel Carson and her phenomenal capabilities in the power of rhetoric and convincing have turned this unknown female biologist in a male dominant world during the twentieth century, into the leader and the creator of the modern environmental movement. The environmental movement, the movement concerned about the wellbeing of our planet and saving it from man’s own self-destruction and arrogance was lunched due to the efforts of Carson and the publication of her book Silent Spring in 1962, the movement persists till this day. Even though Carson was neither a chemist nor an entomologist, she had a passion for our wonderful environment, and therefore she educated herself in those fields. Her passion lead her to take a stand where others failed to do so. Nonetheless, the marvelous
“Carson used the era’s hysteria about radiation to snap her readers to attention, drawing a parallel between nuclear fallout and a new, invisible chemical threat of pesticides throughout Silent Spring,” (Griswold 21). She described radiation as the creation of human’s tampering with nature, and warned that similar dangers would become inevitable with the continued use of pesticides (Carson 7). Carson also knew that a large percent of her audience would be housewives, who she could use as example of those who found poisoned birds and squirrels in their gardens. She angled much of Silent Spring towards this audience, which helped her book become the catalyst for environmental change (Griswold
Silent Spring is one of the most important books of the environmental movement. It was one of the first scientific books to talk about destruction of habitat by humans. As a result, one can imagine that Ms. Rachel Carson needed to be quite persuasive. How does she achieve this? In this excerpt from Silent Spring, Carson utilizes the rhetorical devices of hyperbole, understatement, and rhetorical questions to state the necessity of abolishing the practice of using poisons such as parathion. Carson starts out by using the symbiotic nature of hyperbole and understatement to paint the whole practice as dangerous and unnecessary. She further strengthens her argument by using rhetorical questions to make her readers see the ethical flaws and potential casualties caused by deadly pesticides.
Leopold’s Sand County Almanac and Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring were counted as one of the most environmental books in the 1900’s. The book is considered to be the main reason for the large underpinnings of environmentalism in America. Sand County made many people realize what we were starting to miss, and how nature needs to be taken seriously as a major part of the human life, future, and history. When the book became a best seller in the 1970’s, more and more people start campaigning for better help and overall conservation with nature. More and more people in the community starte...
A question commonly associated with the word insecticides is, what are they? Well I have the answer, insecticides are chemicals that are used to eliminate insects. In the agricultural industry, insecticides are classified into different categories,and the most used is carcinogenic. A carcinogenic insecticide is a substance or agent producing or causing cancer. This is just one of the reason that I believe there are more cons then pros when dealing with a insecticide.. When I was a kid , I can remember my parents taking me and my brother an apple orchard and picking apples. I couldn't wait to eat them until I got home, but we couldn't eat an apple because of what insecticides could be on the apple
In the article "The Obligation to Endure", an excerpt from "Silent Spring", Carson focuses on her major concerns with the environment. For millennia, Mother Nature was the lone modifier that possessed the ability to shape the environment. In turn, this caused species to adapt for survival. However, with the birth of man, the delicate balance has shifted. Humans now possess the ability to alter the makeup of their environment. This is a power that shouldn 't be taken lightly or abused. However, humans are often blind to corruption until it 's too late, and so the inevitable happened. Man abused its power and failed to see the consequences. This is an overarching concern of Carson, "The most alarming of all man 's assaults upon the environment is the contamination of air, earth, rivers, and sea with dangerous and even lethal materials (Carson)." The chemicals dumped into rivers the pollution pumped into the air. The toxic radiation released from nuclear explosions in the form of Strontium 90. The endless pesticides sprayed on crops and trees. All of these are the weapons used in "man 's war against nature
Americans had knowledge of the events taking place during the war, but Carson shed a light on the ripple effects that the environment was experiencing. Silent Spring brings the focus to different threats that had arisen because of the war. In a way, Carson places the blame for the deterioration of the environment on mankind as a whole. In the past, wars had been fought without any use of nuclear weaponry. Carson’s writing really emphasizes the fault of mankind’s decision to hurt the environment. “Along with the possibility of extinction of mankind by nuclear war, the central problem of our age has therefore become the contamination of man’s total environment with such substances of incredible potential for harm – substances that accumulate in the tissues of plants and animals and even penetrate the germ cells to shatter or alter the very material of heredity upon which the shape of the future depends.” (Carson, 181). The writing technique Carson uses in Silent Spring has a way of making the reader feel guilty, especially considering that at the time of publication there was so much environmental destruction occurring. Carson’s writing helped to educate the American population of the harm to the environment caused by the Cold War. Because the war’s dangerous strategies provided such a strong backbone for Carson’s argument, the American public was very receptive of the content and themes presented in Silent
Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring revolutionized the American point of view concerning the environment. It rejected the notion that pesticides and chemicals are the right choice for “controlling” various animals that are seen as an inconvenience. Carson writes about the dangers of pesticides, not only to nature but man himself.
I remember when I first thought about the power one person could have to create change. I was a teenager growing up in the South when I read Rachel Carson’s book “Silent Spring”. This beautifully written book is a powerful indictment of the widespread use of pesticides. Rachel Carson criticized the chemical companies for claiming that pesticides were safe despite mounting evidence to the contrary. And she criticized public officials who accepted the chemical industry’s claims.