With every action, there is an opposite but equal reaction, and Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring was no different. Carson foretold of what was going to happen when her book was released, and she was correct in her assessment. Carson’s book stood out against the common theme of the day of do whatever you want to the environment, and it is this reason that it drew so many critics when it was published. Attacks were made for the content of her book, attacks on her personally, and attacks on legislation that happened as a result of her book. Rachel Carson knew that this book must be released, as she became the voice of species and the planet that could not defend itself. Carson was not greeted with open arms with her book when it was released, …show more content…
When Carson wrote her book, she knew that it was going to draw criticism from the chemical companies. To prepare for this, she had the book checked out, her facts checked, and made sure that all her T’s were crossed and her I’s dotted so to speak. America’s Story summed up the attacks on her, “They spent hundreds of thousands of dollars attacking her personally and trying to discredit her claims. She was called a bird lover, a cat lover, a fish lover, a priestess of nature, as well as a hysterical woman and a poor scientist” (America’s Story, n.d.). Carson was criticized for basically choosing plants and animals over humans. One chemical company even wrote a book about what life would be like if there were no pesticides in the world (America’s Story, n.d.). These companies knew that they could not discredit the information in her book with scientific evidence so they tried the next best thing, by discrediting her as an author and scientist. This however, was not enough to destroy what Carson had worked for, as her book Silent Spring eventually led to the development of
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
Rachel Carson establishes ethos to begin constructing her argument against poisonings. In lines 8-12, she cites the Fish and Wildlife Service to demonstrate that her concerns extend to credible organizations and are not unfounded. She documents an example where farmers in southern Indiana “went together in the summer of 1959 to engage a spray plane to treat an area of river bottomland with parathion” (lines 12-16). To further establish her ethos and authority to speak on this topic, she also supplements this example by explaining a healthy, eco-friendly alternative to how the farmers could have responded. In lines 17-22, she states that agricultural practice revisions would have sufficed for a solution, making the poisonings unnecessary. By offering a solution, Carson not only
Ehrlich, P. R., & Ehrlich, A. H. (1996). Betrayal of science and reason: How anti-environmental rhetoric threatens our future. Washington, D.C: Island Press.
Rachel Carson is well known for writing the book, Silent Spring. This book, which was written
“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.
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
In 1962, the publication of Silent Spring Rachel Carson captivated the American public. Carson wrote about the harmful effects of chemical pesticides in the environment, and her writing was very reflective of the events occurring at the time. There is a strong connection between Carson’s writing and the Cold War. In fact, if it were not for the war, the American public may not have responded in the same way to Carson’s writing. Carson used tone and content as methods of getting her point across to the public. Silent Spring shined a light on the damage done to the environment as a result of the Cold War, and this issue was finally being recognized by American public.
In August 1945, the United States dropped nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. When she began writing Silent Spring in the 1950s, Carson was acutely aware of the short and long term impacts of these events (Carson, 1962). As a naturalist and scientists, she worried about the long term effects of nuclear fallout and the misuse of pesticides. Her work for the U.S. Department of Fisheries gave her unique insight into the rapid ecological system changes due to pesticide use and our own culpability in creating the insect and pest problem to begin with (Biography, 2011).
“Only within the moment of time presented by the present century has one species—man-- acquired significant power to alter the native of his world.” Those were the special words from Rachel Carson. She was a brilliant marine biologist, conservationist, author, and ecologist and published several books throughout her time. Her professional work altered the world for a better understanding to the environmental impact of fertilizers and pesticides. Her thoughts were the start of the Environmental Movement.
Often times we look through people and not truly at them. Sylvia Plath was one person who was looked through a lot when she desperately wanted to be noticed. As a striving poet and author in a time period where women were not expected to perform such tasks Sylvia struggled to keep it all together. Although she had her high points, like we all do, it remains apparent that she was battling with a deep inner conflict. Sylvia brings her emotional burden to life in her first novel The Bell Jar. Feminism, communism and a suicide attempt are all intertwined in this biography. The life of a not only a tortured poet but a struggling mother is obvious throughout her work. In order to grasp the lasting impression of Sylvia Plath, we have to understand where she comes from, how the critics and the people of her time viewed her, and the impact she left for the rest us.
Carson’s writing inspires people to solve problems. In “Silent Spring” page 363 from the background says “ Pesticides are chemical compounds designed to destroy crop-eating insects. Pesticides can be deadly to many species.” This shows that she is inspiring people to take care of there animals and to not do anything wrong in the future. Rachel Carson was just trying to inspire people to do what's right.
John Eliot once said, “History shows us that the people who end up changing the world – the great, political, social, scientific, technological, artistic, even the sport revolutionaries – are always nuts, until they are right, and then they are geniuses”. Eliot meant that the people who end up doing the best are the ones who are once seen as crazy until they prove themselves. These people are underestimated and are attacked for creating a new idea. Rachel Carson is one of these people referred to. Rachel Carson was made fun of and had personal attacks launched on her for sharing something that she believed was hurting the environment. She was labeled a “hysteric women” and not taken seriously. Rachel’s theories proved to be right and Rachel
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.