Rachel Carson's Silent Spring: The Ban Of Parathion

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In 1962, noted biologist Rachel Carson published her book Silent Spring that told of the different effects poisons, such as parathion, have on the ecosystem. Soon after being published, her book gained the attention of the American public and helped to transform their attitudes towards the environment. In the excerpt Carson advocates for the ban of parathion by describing the farmers’ use for the poison as warlike, by faulting the ignorant public, and the negligent government for the poison’s harmful environmental impact on afflicted areas.

Carson describes the farmer’s use of parathion as warlike and inhuman, in an attempt to persuade her readers to condemn the farmers’ action. Carson explains that a group of farmers from southern Indian
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Carson describes the plane’s spraying as a “mission of death,” which can also be used o describe the sort of mission a fighter pilot might go on. Furthermore, the word “mission” is synonymous with the word “goal,” and in this case the mission’s goal is to cause “death.” This morbid diction, comparing the planes spraying of poison to planes going to war, is used by Carson explains that not only is the spraying wrong, but it is as terrible as war, and that the famer’s only objective is to cause as many deaths as they can. Carson uses this to attempt to persuade her readers that the farmer’s warlike actions are to be condemned. She goes on to explain that the “results probably gratified the farmers,” meaning that they were happy with their use of the poison to remove pest from the cornfields. This situational irony, that the farmer’s enjoyed the killings and deaths, …show more content…
Firstly, Carson explains that the people’s “habit of killing grows,” meaning that they are slowing accepting the death toll as part of their daily lives. The word “habit” describes the public’s actions as involuntary, which means that, just like any other habit, it can be corrected. She attempts to show her readers, the general public, that they have grown accustomed to the death of animals, and that they should correct this habit immediately. Carson continues to writes that the general population has the need to “resort to ‘eradicating’ any creature that may annoy or inconvenience” them. She explains that people have grown fond of killing any creature that bothers them. The use of the hyperbole “eradicating” to describe an annoyance shows that the people are impatient and want to solve the problem quickly rather than correctly, since killing an animal is much simpler than tracking it down and removing it from a field. This works to show her readers, the people, that they need to be more patient and find ways to solve their issue without using violence. Furthermore, Carson writes that this is a “moment of inattention by millions,” meaning that the environmental damage caused by parathion has gone unnoticed by “millions” of people. This logos shows that not one, but “millions” of people are to blame for the

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