Carson initiates a major environmental call to action to address the ongoing problem of farmers harming birds. She persuades her audience of Americans in the 1960’s to stand along side her to ban the use of deadly poisons that harm living creatures. Carson does so through her use of negative diction, imagery and an ethical appeal. Carson wastes no time in characterizing farmers as murderers who target birds. When drawing attention to the fact that the “habit of killing grows” and farmers have adapted to “killing by poison,” she exposes the harsh practices of farmers. Carson also forces her readers to understand that these pesticides are really weapons, using phrasing such as “chains of poisoning” and “target of poisons.” Carson also adds that these poisons are “deadly” and trigger a “wave of death,” an example being in 1959 when farmers caused the death of “some 65,000 red-winged blackbirds and starlings.” She is disgusted by these recurrences and sends a strong message to her audience that this must be stopped. Carson deliberately adds that these farmers act as if they are on a “mission of death” just waging a “needless war on blackbirds.” How outlandish, Carson reveals, is it for these grown men to act as if this is a balanced battle. Their actions are especially horrible because they took to killing with poison when “the problem could have been solved easily” with some agricultural changes. Carson characterizes farmers as murders to reveal that they are horrible for
When Rachel Carson's Silent Spring was published in 1962, it generated a storm of controversy over the use of chemical pesticides. Miss Carson's intent in writing Silent Spring was to warn the public of the dangers associated with pesticide use. Throughout her book are numerous case studies documenting the harmful effects that chemical pesticides have had on the environment. Along with these facts, she explains how in many instances the pesticides have done more harm than good in eradicating the pests they were designed to destroy. In addition to her reports on pesticide use, Miss Carson points out that many of the long-term effects that
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.
Carson emphasizes the hazards of parathion by exposing its fatal consequences, thereby invoking a need for its prevention. For example, Carson claims that the issue of blackbirds eating nearby cornfields could have been easily resolved, but farmers resorted to sending airplanes on a “mission of death”. Carson uses warlike imagery through the farmers’ intention for the planes to be used against the birds through parathion instead of for transportation. Her dramatic phrasing for the operation depicts danger more seriously if she had used less stirring language such as ‘to spread the poison’. Carson goes on to state that parathion is “not a specific for blackbirds,” but a ‘universal killer,’ implying that the poison is a threat to almost everything including humans. By providing a detail in the issue that relates to humans directly, she gives even those who do not care as much about nature a cause for concern - a risk to their own lives. Furthermore, Carson reports the
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.
Hello, everyone. My name is Devlin O’Connell and I am going to be speaking to you today about why I believe the death penalty should be abolished. There are three factors that I base this argument off which surround ethics, efficiency, and expenditure.
1. Carson is asking a rhetorical question (p.376), not making an argument. The rhetorical question is a device intended to encourage thought, in this case about the proper apportionment of power in our society. The use of DDT and other insecticides has outcomes that go far beyond the immediate desired effect of the user, yet there is no specific cost attached to these externalities. Carson recognizes that such decisions are often made by small groups of people with narrow interests, and simply wants the reader to question whether such a system of stewardship for the world is ideal. Given that the audience is the majority of people who are not party to such decisions, the question is a fair one to ask, since it engages the audience to think about their role as complicit bystanders in actions such as the use of DDT.
Carson applied offensive diction, imagery of disaster and pathos to evoke the audiences’ sorrow, rage and fear in order to depict the farmers as the enemy of nature and biological life. She constructed her argument in hopes that her audience will feel the urge to act against the usage of parathions; therefore, Carson can achieve her purpose of conserving
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
Carson explains that “as the habit of killing grows” more and more wildlife become direct targets and are subject to death by the pesticide companies. By describing the action done by pesticide companies and farmers as a habit, Carson elicits anger by making the killing seem consistent and purposeful. She suggests that the killings completed by pesticides are more direct to wildlife rather than being incidental. Carson also explains how farmers are using this deathly parathion “to ‘control’…birds distasteful to them”, depicting the farmers and companies as being merciless and cruel. Carson demonstrates that this unnecessary poison is not being used for their main purpose, which is to help crops and benefit farmers, but merely as a way to get rid of an “annoyance”.
He approaches his arguments much in the same way Carson approaches her argument in Silent Spring. This approach is to use cultural appeals while questioning cultural standards, using the object of criticism–culture–as a vital tool for gaining support of, and relating to, the reader. In the following passage, Carson describes the choice that must be made between a path toward progress that is riddled with pesticides and death and a path toward environmental recovery and preservation. Carson writes, We stand now where two roads diverge. But unlike the roads in Robert Frost’s familiar poem, they are not equally fair.
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
If people were not able to open their own backdoor and see the results Carson was describing, this book would have probably never been what it is today. In the second chapter, she compares the use of these chemicals to nuclear war, which at the time was a threat that people seemed to understand. “People are very worried about the threat of a nuclear war destroying the planet. They should think about the use of these chemicals that are being poured into the environment. These chemicals get into the tissues of plants and animals.” (Carson). This at the time would’ve been a good way to get into the minds of people. Also in this chapter she gets into explaining the history of insects and how they even become a “problem” to people in the United States. This relates well to some of the discussions we had in class about people’s views on the environment.
In the book 'Silent spring ' written by Rachael Carson we find a picture of Carson 's deep concept about the connection between nature’s equilibrium and the web of life that has been ruined by the uncontrolled use of insecticides which in turn affected the healthy livelihood of this earth’s creatures. Furthermore, she tells the readers of substitute techniques of achieving the same ends. The title of the book is enough to make us understand that it was a hint of a spring season with no bird songs painting our atmosphere meaning that all birds had vanished due to misuse of pesticides.
A historical moment in United States history was shortly after the “so called,” “Boston Massacre. Many British soldiers were being accused of murder; but one Patriot, John Adams, who would one day become our second President, asserted that everyone deserves a fair trial. There was no killing. Only trials, observation, and questions. Our country states that everyone deserves the right to a trial, and not automatic death. The theory of capital punishment, or as most of you call it, the death penalty, is a violent way to sort out the criminals of an event. Capital punishment is a serious issue, and most of United States is on it. In fact, it is on the 2016 Presidential ballot, whether it should remain or be abolished. To inform people, capital punishment is a government practice where a person is put to death for a crime they committed. These capital offences are of serious issue, but should it really determine whether a person is allowed to live? No! I am an opponent for the death penalty being used anywhere in the world.