The Obligation To Endure By Rachel Carson Summary

Albert Einstein once said, "Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty." Similar to Einstein, the author Rachel Carson believed that human kind should embrace nature's and help preserve its beauty and life . In the passage from the book Silent Spring by Rachel Carson, the author informs and persuades her audience against the dangers and misuse of pesticides. Rachel Carson is a renowned writer, ecologist, and scientist who dedicated her life to the conservation of the environment. Throughout her career as an editor in chief, marine biologist, and environmental activist, Carson continued to educate the public about 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.

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 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.

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

In paragraphs 8 and 9 of "The Obligation of Endurance" by Rachel Carson, the use of a cause and effect organizational structure helps the reader understand the information by clearly illustrating the relationship between actions and their consequences. Carson presents a series of causes and their corresponding effects, which allows the reader to comprehend the impact of human activities on the environment. For example, in paragraph 8, Carson explains how the excessive use of pesticides leads to the destruction of natural predators, resulting in an increase in pest populations. She states, "The result is that the insect population, released from the normal checks of predators, increases enormously and becomes a serious threat to crops." This

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

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.

Forests have been cut, crops planted, pastures seeded, and urban areas paved. One of the most troubling consequences of human modification of ecosystems is an ongoing loss of species and therefore a loss of biodiversity around the world. The current extinctions have a human cause: habitat loss (such as clearing of tropical rainforests); the introduction of invasive species; unregulated hunting and fishing; and pollution of water, air, and

In “The Obligation to Endure,” Rachel Carson outlines an argument on the adverse effects of pesticides to the environment and the risks exposed to human health. Notably, Carson utilizes a wide array of appeals and stylistic devices to convince the audience of her stance on the use of pesticides. Most importantly, Carson emphasizes on the ban of the use of DTT, a pesticide that was manufactured and widely used around homes and offices. In view of this, this paper conducts a rhetorical analysis of “The Obligation to Endure.” An emphasis is placed on the elements of arguments and the Aristotelian appeals Carson uses on her audience.

In the book Silent Spring, marine biologist Rachel Carson describes the devastating effects of pesticides on the environment. The excerpt titled The Obligation to Endure is well written and makes compelling points leading the reader to continue reading and swaying their opinion in favor of the purpose filled and deliberate argument. Carson has one weakness in this excerpt where she switches her writing to a very scientific mode, although it is minor compared to the strengths of her writing. Her words flow with fluidity, draw the reader in, and drive her points home. She invokes emotion with her powerful prose and effectively launches the

Rachel Carson makes a very valid point in “The Obligation to Endure.” These damages created by the people, like pollution and harmful chemicals in our environment are irreversible, however raising awareness will make a change for good in the long run for the environment and for the health of humans. Humans are destroying the environment that has been around longer than humans themselves. Although these things currently show no visual effect on humans, they can end up being a danger in the long run. Carson wants to raise awareness and wants for the public to have enough knowledge before making long-term devastating decisions with disastrous effects. As Carson states, “There is still very limited awareness of the nature of the threat” (499). Carson’s purpose is to raise awareness of the great dangers that are presented with these dangerous chemicals because she wants to stop humans from destroying the precious environment.

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

It can effect humans, crops, and animals. The worst possible outcome for all is death. Pesticides can be passed down from generation to generation, in can being ingested through our drinking water, and we can eating it by spraying it on our plants. Humans have made a pesticide that cannot only kill nut can also cause cancer to us and now never be completely gone. The worst part is that experts are starting to have a problem identifying these chemicals and not knowing how to get rid of them so we are not in taking as much. So, in reading these chapters made me think is getting rid of pest that important that I am putting my own life at risk. Rachel Carson just wants humans to realize that the decision they are making will effect humans from many years after they do it. She also wants to give them the chance to realize the consequence of those action and be able to make a choice

Many people blamed the huge death tolls, on Rachel since she made people hesitant to use chemicals. Carson held a belief of humans needing to stay in their lane and not disturb the environment. Often people forgot that the world is not just a resource meant to cater to humans. Morally, Carson made people of all backgrounds understand how the environment was being treated and how it would affect whole ecosystems and end up being a huge inconvenience to humans. Carson’s best seller helped transform the older conservation movement into a more comprehensive and ecologically informed environmentalism.