Silent Spring Essay - 1350 Words

The Death of Beauty 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 natures 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†¦show more content†¦Carson instills fear among her audience at the farmers lack of emotion towards bloodshed, leaving the reader to question who is to blame. Sparking the readers interest, Carson introduces an authority, who she describes as havi ng a direct affiliation with the farmers who were, persuaded of the merits of killing by poison (paragraph 2). The farmers are misinformed and act without reason, only following what was told to them. The violence against blackbirds provides benefits or merits of death that outweigh moral reasoning and the consequences of using poison. The war between an unknown authority and animals is a one sided one, which involves exterminating the helpless and the innocent with a substance that has deadly effects. Acting on orders, without emotion, farmers made the fatal decision and, they sent in the planes on their mission of death (paragraph 2). Carson uses the term mission of death to symbolize the authorities sending in soldiers in a war who are ordered to kill anything in sight. Comparing a war to the farmers actions brings memories of blood, fear, and endless suffering to the reader. Carson relates to the readers experiences of war and uses the negative associations to connect it the fa rmers. Armed with planes, the farmers mission of death resulted in the deaths of over 65,000 victims of blackbirds and starlings. Carson writes that casualties most likely gratified the farmers, that the deaths were the spoils of war.Show MoreRelatedSilent Spring Essay701 Words   |  3 PagesUp until the publication of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, DDT was widely considered a very effective and safe pesticide. Many had always questioned DDT’s safety but it wasnt until Silent Spring that people began to realize the harm DDT was doing to the environment, animals, and themselves. In her book Carson explains how DDT exploits the interconnectedness of nature and as a result was silencing not just the environment and animals-but humans as well. Three of the book’s chapters which in my opinionRead More Silent Spring Essay918 Words   |  4 Pages Silent Spring Rachel Louise Carson (1907-64), was an American marine biologist, and author of widely read books on ecological themes. Carson was born in Springdale, Pennsylvania, and educated at the former Pennsylvania College for Women and Johns Hopkins University. Rachel Carson taught Zoology at the University of Maryland from 1931 to 1936. She was an aquatic biologist at the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries and its successor, the Fish and Wildlife Service, from 1936 to 1952. Rachel Carson wrote 4 booksRead MoreEssay on Silent Spring - Rachel Carson30092 Words   |  121 PagesSilent Spring Rachel Carson Online Information For the online version of BookRags Silent Spring Premium Study Guide, including complete copyright information, please visit: http://www.bookrags.com/studyguide-silentspring/ Copyright Information  ©2000-2007 BookRags, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. The following sections of this BookRags Premium Study Guide is offprint from Gales For Students Series: Presenting Analysis, Context, and Criticism on Commonly Studied Works: Introduction, Author BiographyRead More The Power of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring Essay1463 Words   |  6 PagesThe Power of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring In 1962, Rachel Carson published Silent Spring and was greeted with a roar of protest and approval. After years and years of controversy and skepticism surrounding its argument, Silent Spring was and still is recognized as a perceptive warning of things in progress and things to come. The book set the stage for the first real and effectual environmental movement. In 17 chapters, many of which can stand alone as essays, Carson develops a deceptivelyRead MoreSilent Spring by Rachel Carson Essay1451 Words   |  6 PagesRachel Carson constructed a summer hut on the Maine coast where as a marine biologist, she expected for plentiful time to witness the ocean’s complicated life in the perfect natural laboratory of seaside mid-Maine and write about it. Her book Silent Spring became the reagent for the foundation environmental awareness in the US. In her book, Carson puts light on the extensive and unfettered use of chemical pesticides like DDT, which until this time had been gushed over extensively from airplanes overRead More Analysis of Silent Spring by Rachel Carson Essay729 Words   |  3 PagesAnalysis of Silent Spring by Rachel Carson Review: 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 deadRead MoreEssay on Silent Spring893 Words   |  4 Pages The following quote â€Å"The sedge is withr’d from the lake, And no birds sing,† (Keats) seems like a very simple sentence with no meaning to it. However, after reading Chapter 6 of Silent Spring , I realized how loaded the comment is with meaning. The quote is describing humans and how humans treat the plants here on earth. The quote describes a scene where humans continue to destroy plants because they feel that they are in the way or that the plants are not appealing to look at. However, the plantsRead MoreThe Obligation to Endure Essay1388 Words   |  6 Pagescontinues to be an integral part of our lives. Civilization brought knowledge, knowledge brought technology, and technology brought chemicals and pesticides to â€Å"improve† our world. â€Å"The Obligation to Endure† is an excerpt from Rachel Carson’s â€Å"Silent Spring,† a passionate and masterful work on the results of civilization’s efforts to control pests and insects. These effects include destruction of the environment, alteration of gene structures in plants and animals, water contamination, and an upsetRead MoreRachel Louise Carson and the Environmental Movement Essay1361 Words   |  6 Pageson government research and her profound love for nature to create literary works of art that would be read by millions. The difference Rachel Carson made in ecology and environmental conservation with the publication of her most famous novel, Silent Spring, would be one of the major important outcomes of the 20th century. Carson graduated from college knowing she wanted to be an author. Her first novel, Under the Sea-Wind, received positive reviews but was released a month before the attack on PearlRead MoreEssay about Biography of Rachel Carson1680 Words   |  7 PagesBiography of Rachel Carson Rachel Carson is considered one of Americas finest science and nature writers. She is best known for her 1962 book, Silent Spring, which is often credited with beginning the environmental movement in the United States. The book focussed on the uncontrolled and often indiscriminate use of pesticides, especially dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (commonly known as DDT), and the irreparable environmental damage caused by these chemicals. The public outcry Carson generated