Obligation to Endure: Chapter in Silent Spring

1308 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Defects of pesticidesin agriculture

“The Obligation to Endure” chapter in Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring is a gripping chapter that is overwhelmed with vital information on chemicals and pesticides that everyone is subjected to each and every day. Carson’s chapter is explanatory, and she wants to inform her readers, the general public, the main problem of our population is the humans who contaminate everything they touch. These humans have created things that can build up inside the tissues of plants and animals and alter genetics beyond anyone’s beliefs (Carson 8). Carson strives to inform her audience that as humans, everyone makes mistakes, but the country has made such a drastic mistake now that it is slowly killing every person, plant, and animal in the process. Something as simple as a chemical to keep bugs off plants has turned into a toxic biohazard that can only be taken in by human bodies in microscopic amounts without risk of poison, sickness, or death. With her own knowledge from her past careers in zoology, marine biology, and being a pioneer in the formation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), she is well informed about the carcinogens and disastrous qualities of these pesticides. Carson gets her views across even with her incredible lack of objectivity. Her straight forward style and uncomplicated language in her rhetorical context help prove her own ethics and logical thinking, while organizing her quality of evidence to get an emotional reaction out of her audience to attest her beliefs.
In the chapter, Carson constantly points out how these biologically potent chemicals are a terrible thing, and how they should become less toxic or simply halted in use all together. She continues her negativity by proving to her audience with studi...

... middle of paper ...

..., she mentions the Bill of Rights, and how it contains no guarantee that citizens will be secure against lethal poisons distributed by private individuals or public officials (Carson 12). Using the Bill of Rights as a focus makes the American public very empathetic to the situation. The law of the land that America runs by, does not mention this problem that is killing people every day. That statement makes the American readers feel more connected to her views, and the cause. The emotion throughout the chapter is almost as if Carson is blaming the reader for all the damage that the scientists have created with the dangerous insecticides. When the reader feels responsible for a problem, or if there is a way for he or she to get involved to negate these negative side effects, that is an emotion that truly hits home with the reader, and will give a lasting impression.

Show More
Related

  • Silent Spring Rhetorical Analysis Essay

    532 Words  | 2 Pages

    Silent Spring is one of the most important books of the environmental movement. It was one of the first scientific books to talk about destruction of habitat by humans. As a result, one can imagine that Ms. Rachel Carson needed to be quite persuasive. How does she achieve this? In this excerpt from Silent Spring, Carson utilizes the rhetorical devices of hyperbole, understatement, and rhetorical questions to state the necessity of abolishing the practice of using poisons such as parathion. Carson starts out by using the symbiotic nature of hyperbole and understatement to paint the whole practice as dangerous and unnecessary. She further strengthens her argument by using rhetorical questions to make her readers see the ethical flaws and potential casualties caused by deadly pesticides.

    Read More

  • A Summary of "The Perils of Obedience"

    525 Words  | 2 Pages

    In "The Perils of Obedience," Stanley Milgram conducted a study that tests the conflict between obedience to authority and one's own conscience. Through the experiments, Milgram discovered that the majority of people would go against their own decisions of right and wrong to appease the requests of an authority figure.

    Read More

  • Rachel Carson's Rhetorical Summary

    695 Words  | 2 Pages

    After Carson conveyed and explained her bias, she begins to ask questions with only one real answer. This is an effective format as readers will feel they are drawing their own opinions at the end, but are really being spoon fed Carson’s bias. One specific rhetorical question - “Who has made the decision that sets in motion these chains of poisonings, this ever-widening wave of death that spreads out, like ripples when a pebble is dropped into a pond?” - is particularly effective as it contains a simile. This simile adds very vivid imagery and marks the beginning of a list of rhetorical questions all pertaining to who is to blame for the death and injures by poison. It is enough to push some people to bold action against the use poison to eradicate pests, as they don’t want this unsettled blame to fall upon them. They are encouraged to prove they aren’t ignorant or contributing to this problem.

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Analysis Of Silent Spring By Rachel Carson

    484 Words  | 1 Pages

    Rachel Carson establishes ethos to begin constructing her argument against poisonings. In lines 8-12, she cites the Fish and Wildlife Service to demonstrate that her concerns extend to credible organizations and are not unfounded. She documents an example where farmers in southern Indiana “went together in the summer of 1959 to engage a spray plane to treat an area of river bottomland with parathion” (lines 12-16). To further establish her ethos and authority to speak on this topic, she also supplements this example by explaining a healthy, eco-friendly alternative to how the farmers could have responded. In lines 17-22, she states that agricultural practice revisions would have sufficed for a solution, making the poisonings unnecessary. By offering a solution, Carson not only

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Analysis Of Rachel Carson's 'Silent Springs'

    564 Words  | 2 Pages

    The larger occasion is that the audience needs to take a step forward by preventing the use of dangerous and hazardous chemicals. The immediate occasion Carson is trying to convey is how these harmful chemicals not only affect the insecticides but also

    Read More

  • Rachel Carson And The Cold War Essay

    756 Words  | 2 Pages

    In 1962, the publication of Silent Spring Rachel Carson captivated the American public. Carson wrote about the harmful effects of chemical pesticides in the environment, and her writing was very reflective of the events occurring at the time. There is a strong connection between Carson’s writing and the Cold War. In fact, if it were not for the war, the American public may not have responded in the same way to Carson’s writing. Carson used tone and content as methods of getting her point across to the public. Silent Spring shined a light on the damage done to the environment as a result of the Cold War, and this issue was finally being recognized by American public.

    Read More

  • The Dangers Of Threats In Rachel Carson's Silent Spring

    998 Words  | 2 Pages

    No one really knows the long-term effects of these substances, individually or in unpredictable combination, either on human health or on the health of the ecosystems upon which we, and all life, depend. The chemicals are not the same as the ones Carson indicted in Silent Spring, yet they are produced, sold, and used on an unsuspecting public by the same interconnected complex of profit-driven companies and government authorities. Carson’s words in her “Fable for Tomorrow” still apply, as if we lived in the future that she imagined: “No witchcraft, no enemy action” had produced our “stricken world. The people had done it themselves” (Carson, 1962,

    Read More

  • Rachel Carson's Impact On Society

    701 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the article "The Obligation to Endure", an excerpt from "Silent Spring", Carson focuses on her major concerns with the environment. For millennia, Mother Nature was the lone modifier that possessed the ability to shape the environment. In turn, this caused species to adapt for survival. However, with the birth of man, the delicate balance has shifted. Humans now possess the ability to alter the makeup of their environment. This is a power that shouldn 't be taken lightly or abused. However, humans are often blind to corruption until it 's too late, and so the inevitable happened. Man abused its power and failed to see the consequences. This is an overarching concern of Carson, "The most alarming of all man 's assaults upon the environment is the contamination of air, earth, rivers, and sea with dangerous and even lethal materials (Carson)." The chemicals dumped into rivers the pollution pumped into the air. The toxic radiation released from nuclear explosions in the form of Strontium 90. The endless pesticides sprayed on crops and trees. All of these are the weapons used in "man 's war against nature

    Read More

  • Colony Collapse Disorder and Pesticides

    1578 Words  | 4 Pages

    The 'Secondary' of the 'Secon Introduction to toxicology (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Taylor & Francis.

    Read More

  • Pros And Cons Of Animal Experimentation

    1261 Words  | 3 Pages

    Stokes, W.S. “Animals and the 3 R’s on Toxicology Research and Testing.” Human and Experimental Toxicology December 2015: 7. Academic Search Premier. Web. 14 February

    Read More

  • Insecticides And Pesticides In Rachel Carson's Silent Spring

    1227 Words  | 3 Pages

    Have you ever thought about how your fruits and vegetables are grown? How about which ingredients are put into bug sprays and insecticides to ward off those pesky insects? Look no further because author Rachel Carson looks deep into the many environmental issues caused by pesticides and herbicides in her New York Times best-selling novel, “Silent Spring.” “Silent Spring” is a collection of studies which were performed in an effort to educate others about the harmful things occurring everyday to their foods and every-day environment in hopes of giving them a wake up call. This novel is thought by many to be a revolutionary novel that forced people to take notice of the harm being caused in their world, many of which people were unaware of. After discovering the results of these chemicals, it really makes one wonder, is the luxury of being insect free really worth all of the consequences?

    Read More

  • Environmental Issues In Silent Spring

    2441 Words  | 5 Pages

    “Carson used the era’s hysteria about radiation to snap her readers to attention, drawing a parallel between nuclear fallout and a new, invisible chemical threat of pesticides throughout Silent Spring,” (Griswold 21). She described radiation as the creation of human’s tampering with nature, and warned that similar dangers would become inevitable with the continued use of pesticides (Carson 7). Carson also knew that a large percent of her audience would be housewives, who she could use as example of those who found poisoned birds and squirrels in their gardens. She angled much of Silent Spring towards this audience, which helped her book become the catalyst for environmental change (Griswold

    Read More

  • The Obligation to Endure

    1386 Words  | 3 Pages

    Civilization began with agriculture, and agriculture continues to be an integral part of our lives. Civilization brought knowledge, knowledge brought technology, and technology brought chemicals and pesticides to “improve” our world. “The Obligation to Endure” is an excerpt from Rachel Carson’s “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 upset of nature’s delicate balance. This article is an impassioned plea to the world to understand the threat and demand the information necessary to make an informed consent on use of these deadly substances.

    Read More

  • Rachel Carson Silent Spring Summary

    521 Words  | 2 Pages

    Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring revolutionized the American point of view concerning the environment. It rejected the notion that pesticides and chemicals are the right choice for “controlling” various animals that are seen as an inconvenience. Carson writes about the dangers of pesticides, not only to nature but man himself.

    Read More

  • One Person Can Make a Difference

    775 Words  | 2 Pages

    I remember when I first thought about the power one person could have to create change. I was a teenager growing up in the South when I read Rachel Carson’s book “Silent Spring”. This beautifully written book is a powerful indictment of the widespread use of pesticides. Rachel Carson criticized the chemical companies for claiming that pesticides were safe despite mounting evidence to the contrary. And she criticized public officials who accepted the chemical industry’s claims.

    Read More

More about Obligation to Endure: Chapter in Silent Spring

Open Document