The 20th century was a tumultuous time of scientific advances that greatly affected how society lives currently. In 1962, Rachel Carson published Silent Spring on the topic of the changing environment. Through emphasizing damage already done to the environment, providing alternatives to using objects that harm the environment, and placing accusation on an anonymous powerful figure instead of the common American, Rachel Carson argues for her readers to protect the environment themselves instead of letting only few dangerous yet powerful people destroy it. Carson’s excerpt details a world in which animals not only are the recipients of actions by humans but are active victims being harmed by a negligence that can only be aided by the public’s
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Carson, early in the excerpt, states that farmers had been “persuaded of the merits of killing by poison,” and thus did not think of killing themselves. Acquitting the general public of purposefully destroying the environment causes Carson’s audience to feel embarrassed rather than angry and feel obligated to help remedy their mistakes. Carson then emphasizes that an “authoritarian temporarily entrusted with power” made the decision to use pesticides, allowing her audience to feel relieved that this person is no longer in power. This previously powerful figure chose that “the supreme value is a world without insects” without discussing that decision with “countless legions of people” beforehand. After emphasizing that animals are more than just emotionless victims, the implication that a person wants a world without them causes Carson’s audience to feel responsible to stop the deaths of animals. Through allowing the audience to realize it is not their fault for the declination in the environment and implying that the person who caused pesticides to become common is now out of power, Carson’s audience feels hope that they can change the environment for the better and protect crops at the same
Carson, early in the excerpt, states that farmers had been “persuaded of the merits of killing by poison,” and thus did not think of killing themselves. Acquitting the general public of purposefully destroying the environment causes Carson’s audience to feel embarrassed rather than angry and feel obligated to help remedy their mistakes. Carson then emphasizes that an “authoritarian temporarily entrusted with power” made the decision to use pesticides, allowing her audience to feel relieved that this person is no longer in power. This previously powerful figure chose that “the supreme value is a world without insects” without discussing that decision with “countless legions of people” beforehand. After emphasizing that animals are more than just emotionless victims, the implication that a person wants a world without them causes Carson’s audience to feel responsible to stop the deaths of animals. Through allowing the audience to realize it is not their fault for the declination in the environment and implying that the person who caused pesticides to become common is now out of power, Carson’s audience feels hope that they can change the environment for the better and protect crops at the same