Carson Silent Spring Analysis

Carson’s primary argument is that the ecosystem is unable to adjust and rebalance itself due to the rapidity of the introduction of chemicals into the environment. She points to the common knowledge that it took hundreds of millions of years for life to evolve to its current state. She goes on to explain how, given time (eons), the environment adjusted to natural dangers such as radiation emitted from certain rocks and short-wave radiation from the sun, but that it is impossible for the earth to adjust and rebalance in the face of man-made threats in the relative miniscule timeframe of decades. Her appeal is both logical and emotional. Logically, chemicals sprayed on croplands, forests or gardens will kill not just “pests” but other living organisms, and that some amount of these chemicals will end up in ground water, causing problems for anyone or anything that depends on this water. Emotionally if the possibility of permanent gene damage, which cause deformities, cancers, and early death, is not enough to encourage a second look at this issue then there is no hope for the planet’s future.

In fact, Carson outlines her evidence and claims for the global environment and the whole of humanity. In addition to this, it is worthy to mention that, Carson was directing her message to policymakers because they had the power to ban the manufacture of the pesticides and insecticides. Furthermore, Carson’s messages were directed at certain companies and the manufacturers of pesticides such as DDT. The catalyst of this message stemmed from the widespread use of insecticides both at home and in offices. As it seemed, there was a widespread rate of ignorance and misinformation across the public on the harmful effects of these pesticides.

Rachel Carson is a noted biologist who studies biology, a branch of science addressing living organisms, yet she has written a book called Silent Spring to speak about the harmful effects of pesticides on nature. Carson doesn’t write about birds’ genetic and physical makeup, the role of them in the animal food chain, or even how to identify their unbelievable bird songs, yet strongly attests the fight for a well developed environment containing birds, humans, and insects is just and necessary. To Carson, the war for a natural environment is instantly essential for holding on to her true love for the study of biology. Thus Carson claims that whether it be a direct hit towards birds or an indirect hit towards humans and wildlife, farmers need to understand the effects and abandon the usage of pesticides in order to save the environment by appealing to officials, farmers, and Americans in her 1962 book, Silent Spring. She positions her defense by using rhetorical devices such as rhetorical questioning to establish logos, juxtaposing ideas, and using connotative and denotative diction.

In her essay “The Obligation to Endure”, Rachel Carson alerts the public to the dangers of modern industrial pollution. She writes about the harmful consequences of lethal materials being released into the environment. She uses horrifying evidence, a passionate tone, audience, and the overall structure of her essay to express to her readers that the pollution created by man wounds the earth. There are many different ways that pollution can harm the environment, from the nuclear explosions discharging toxic chemicals into the air, to the venomous pesticides sprayed on plants that kills vegetation and sickens cattle. The adjustments to these chemicals would take generations. Rachel

The United States faces constant change due to its massive innovations and its enormous population. Yet, although changes have paved the path for the United States to become a world leader in many subjects, some changes leave drastic consequences for its population. In “ The Obligation to Endure,” Rachel Carson discusses the use of pesticides in the food production across the United States. Throughout her text, she utilizes rhetorical methods such as parallelism, pathos, and repetition to add substance to her text. Her use of these rhetorical devices furthers her argument since they allow the reader to have a better understanding of the reading. Similarly, Michael S. Malone utilizes rhetorical devices in his text “ The Next American Frontier “ to amplify his argument, as he argues technology is the next innovation that will take the United States into a new era. Malone furthers his argument through the use of rhetorical devices like pathos, parallelism, and repetition. However, Carson contrast Malone’s argument about the benefits technology can have on the country by demonstrating how the developments of pesticides to keep bugs away from plants unraveled into a large-scale environmental concern.

In the mid-20th century, farmers used a toxic insecticide named parathion in an attempt to control pests detrimental to their crops. Rachel Carson was a biologist who wrote pamphlets (Lear) on conservation and natural resources designed to inform people on the beauty of the living world. In an excerpt from her 1962 work Silent Spring, Carson calls upon the public to take action against the use of parathion by highlighting its catastrophic nature and vilifying the agricultural community for their negligence.

The following involves the second chapter of Carson’s book, Silent Spring that was written in 1962. In this chapter Carson argues persuasively the adverse impacts of pesticides upon the environment and the risks on human health and the environment associated with these “genetic invaders” (Carson, 1962). Many of the extremely diverse people from Carson’s audience targeted were under the impression that chemicals like DDT, at that time in history, were safe for their health. Carson reconciles and attempts to persuade the public to consider the idea that DDT, which in the 1950s and 60s was one of the many chemical pesticides being manufactured and sold to

Carson speaks about the diminishment of us as a human being. With the amount of harmful pesticides we use without fully understanding its consequences, we are slowly killing our human race. When pesticides are sprayed on crops and insects, they end up getting into our bodies. Adopting the easy way of getting rid of insects is harming us in the long run.

Rachel Carson, in her book, Silent Spring, asserts that Americans must seriously reconsider the reasons for which they unilaterally use poisons. Carson does not explicitly state this, for that would have little effect, rather she attempts to force the reader to reflect and question the status quo. She employs provocative and unapologetic diction and rhetorical questions to drive her message home.

In 17 chapters, many of which can stand alone as essays, Carson develops a deceptively simple premise: the use and overuse of synthetic chemicals to control insect pests introduces these chemicals into the air, water, and soil and into the food chain where they poison animals and humans, and disrupt the many intricate

In the book Silent Spring, Rachel Carson’s main concern is the widespread use of synthetic pesticides and their impact on the environment. Carson concentrates on a commonly used pesticide in the 1950s called DDT. She opposes the indiscriminate spraying of DDT because it has profound consequences on the environment, humans and animals. Carson collected information about how the DDT can cause cancer in humans, harm animals such as birds and remained in the environment for long periods of time. Subsequently, the chemicals in the pesticides are extremely harmful so she tries to raise awareness and convince others that there are better alternatives.

In the book, Silent Spring by Rachel Carson warns people about the use of insecticide. When people use pesticide to kill insects it leads to problems because it would transfer from people to animals. Carson shows us when the earth is contaminated with pollution, it is going to take generation after generation to fix. When the chemicals were discovered to make pesticides it was founded by an accident. People started to use pesticides to kill insects, but the pesticide started to make people and animals to get sick or die. The pesticide would enter the body animals or people and it would transfer to the offspring of the animals or human beings. According to Carson pesticide would go to the water supply where people drink from and get sick or die. Carson suggests that we should not stop using pesticide, but to limit our usage of pesticide. I agree with Carson that we should limit the use of pesticides. People around the world she cut back on the usage of pesticides because it hurts the health of human beings, animals, and water supply.

This book was focused on the concern of pesticides that industries, along with us as individuals, have been dumping (both knowingly and unknowingly) into water. Carson was concerned that the chemicals which the farmers spread on their fields, and even the chemicals we use in our homes (among others), in the end, might come back around and harm us. The beginning of the book tells a story of a place, that was once so beautiful, turned dead and ugly due to a “strange blight that crept over the area” and destroyed everything. Later in the book, she goes on to explain that chemicals, particularly one known as DDT, are the major cause of environmental damage and the near extinction of

Silent Spring reads like a chemical wasteland travel guide, journeying us across bucolic landscapes and illuminating beauty in towns, plains, waterways, farms, and forests, all of which hold a hidden pesticidal affliction. Interested in showing the ecological system, Carson frequently foreshadows the arrival of contemporary books we’ve read as she calls attention to “the web of interwoven lives.” She paints our interconnections clearly and with passion. This ecological mindedness shows the relationship between all living things, locally and globally, which she intends will create sympathy for non-humans while calling attention to our own infestations. She subtly references capitalism when discussing the role of farmers lobbying for increased

“A grim specter has crept upon us almost unnoticed, and this imagined tragedy may easily become a stark reality we shall all know. What has already silenced the voice of spring in countless towns? ” (Carson 3) In reading this sentence it is inferred that bird population is rapidly when in truth at the time Carson wrote the book the bird population was on the rise, she continued to mention that DDT was causing the numbers of countless species of bird to fall to extinction.