The book, “Silent Spring”, by Rachel Carson brings to light the possible harm and ramifications of overusing chemicals that are not fully understood. To fully drive her point home, Carson uses language, ethos, and logos. Carson uses strong language several times in order giver her argument stronger emphasis. At one point she uses the word “evil” to describe pollution. There are very few words that have a more negative connotation than evil. Carson uses this word fairly early in her book, which she uses as an effective tool to set the tone for the rest of the story. On page 8 Carson states that “they should not be called ‘pesticides’ but ‘biocides’.” With ‘bio’ meaning life and ‘cide’ meaning killing, the word literally means life killing.
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“Strontium 90, released through nuclear explosions into the air, comes to earth in rain or drifts down as fallout, lodges in soil, enters in the grass or corn or wheat grown there, and in time takes up its abode in the bones of a human being, there to remain until his death.” (pg. 6) Written in the era of the Cold War, the author frequently makes comparisons between chemicals and radiation. The author really couldn’t have chosen a more perfect example. For the decade preceding the books release the fear of the Russian dropping a nuclear bomb on them haunted many Americans. So as a result, the public would defiantly react negatively to anything that reminded them of said bombs. Mentioning radiation could also have been a ploy to get people anxious to fight for the safety of the chemicals. By also mentioning that the radiation stays in a human’s bones for their entire lives, Carson is able to not gain understanding for the problem but also had a touch of fear as to what would happen if the problem was left unchecked. Carson was also effective in mentioning that humans could be harmed, because in that particular era, mainstream environmentalism was nonexistent. It was much more effective to mention possible harm to people and not just the environment, because at the time the environment wasn’t a huge
“Strontium 90, released through nuclear explosions into the air, comes to earth in rain or drifts down as fallout, lodges in soil, enters in the grass or corn or wheat grown there, and in time takes up its abode in the bones of a human being, there to remain until his death.” (pg. 6) Written in the era of the Cold War, the author frequently makes comparisons between chemicals and radiation. The author really couldn’t have chosen a more perfect example. For the decade preceding the books release the fear of the Russian dropping a nuclear bomb on them haunted many Americans. So as a result, the public would defiantly react negatively to anything that reminded them of said bombs. Mentioning radiation could also have been a ploy to get people anxious to fight for the safety of the chemicals. By also mentioning that the radiation stays in a human’s bones for their entire lives, Carson is able to not gain understanding for the problem but also had a touch of fear as to what would happen if the problem was left unchecked. Carson was also effective in mentioning that humans could be harmed, because in that particular era, mainstream environmentalism was nonexistent. It was much more effective to mention possible harm to people and not just the environment, because at the time the environment wasn’t a huge