Rachel Carson Silent Spring Analysis

The environment has long been a part of importance to many, especially environmental protection agencies. In the 1950's to 1960's, the emphasis on and importance of the environment shifted and increased. During this time, the environmental movement started, and people's awareness of the environment and effects on the environment from numerous activities grew. Rachel Carson, a biologist, wrote a book discussing the destructive effects of pesticides, as a means to inform the public and urge them to act against the use of them, yet the book created much controversy. In the excerpt from Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, Carson states that the use of spraying pesticides is not worth the damage done to the natural world by describing the poison's widespread …show more content…
Carson states that in addition to those deaths of the irritating blackbirds, there were also those other "wildlife deaths" that were "unnoticed and unrecorded." These deaths that many farmers neglected when spraying parathion proves the mistreatment of many farmers. Carson's use of "unnoticed" to portray those deaths disregarded by farmers and the hopeless diction involved emphasizes the widespread damage that parathion and other pesticides have by killing many other parts of wildlife that was unintended. Carson also presents that the "rabbits or raccoons or opossums," which used to occupy a home in the lands near the river, were now "doomed." Carson uses these certain animals to generate a feeling of innocence toward all wildlife in the area, as these animals are cute, and will not cause major damage. The sudden transition from the past of these innocent animals to the dark future reveals that the farmers killing of other wildlife is unjustifiable, and evokes sympathy by describing the unethical treatment of farmers and the dark future of these innocent animals. Carson also states that that the reality and result of the ruthless spraying of pesticides are many "pitiful heaps of many-hued feathers." By saying that the feathers were in "pitiful" piles, Carson emphasizes the condition of wildlife after they were killed by the merciless spraying of pesticides. The "heaps" of "feathers" that Carson uses to describe the birds and other wildlife creates a feeling of innocence that the animals had possessed, which elicits a feeling of sympathy toward those that were killed. By describing the colorful, "many-hued" feathers, Carson asserts the universal damage of parathion because of the numerous amounts of other wildlife also