That Rhetoric Though Rachel Carson, a noted biologist, published “Silent Spring” in 1962, and isn’t shy to express her feelings about the violent interactions between man and nature. In the passage, it is clear that her purpose was to emotionally engage the reader with vivid descriptions, and to appeal to logic by reporting facts and exposing the death resulting from pesticides. Pathos is liberally sprinkled throughout the passage and is used as a driving point in Carson’s argument. Used more prominently in the second and fourth paragraph, the pictures painted of dying, pitiful animals (“... And in the other the pitiful heaps of many-hue feathers, the lifeless remains of birds...”) and caricatures of careless farmers (“...Doomed by a judge and jury who neither knew of their existence nor cared.”) appeal to the morals deep within us that unconsciously push us to cheer for the underdog. In this case, pathos is used to underline the suffering of the wildlife and the carelessness of the those who did the deed of spraying nature. …show more content…
The pictures of pathos are painted with stark and depressing diction, which contribute to the overall dark and hurtful tone, which makes it seem as if the author herself is taking bullets. Again, it used used alongside pathos in paragraphs two and four, as well as paragraph three. Short phrases such as “Casualty list,” “Lethal film,” “Chains of poisoning,” and “Wave of death” all use dark and angry words that contribute to the malevolent atmosphere. The phrases mentioned were all used to describe the actions of the farmers, and therefore portraying the atmosphere around the farmers with a negative light and making them be seen as bad
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.
Pathos – I think it is quite easy to see how Carson uses pathos in her book. Half of the excerpt we received seems to be dedicated to this topic. The first chapter is charged with emotions and communal values as Carson builds a kind of utopian nature scene and then destroys it right before the reader’s eyes. I think this dramatization communicates the powerful message intended, but it does make me wonder how different the feeling of this chapter would be if she used a real world example. Perhaps the pathos would have been stronger because it would let the reader connect to real people and a concrete place. Perhaps the pathos would be weaker because it would not allow Carson to describe all the disastrous effects that she wanted to in such a vivid way. Perhaps the strength of this chapter depends on the reader’s preference.
Rachel Carson, before publishing Silent Spring, would major in marine zoology at Pennsylvania Women's College, where she would develop her interest in the naturalism and conservation going on at the time (Lear, 23). After graduating, she would take a job at the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries, where she would write about different issues concerning the environment at the time. After writing several books to some success, she would begin work on Silent Spring, as she would find her naturalist causes to be her impetus. She even later on in her life wrote to her friends, What I discovered was that everything which meant most to me as a naturalist was being threatened, and that nothing I could do would be more important. " (Carson, 17)
Only the poor, the beggar, and the under-classes are prefer to walk, in the opinion of some Americans. However, one American, the author Antonia Malchik, writes “The End of Walking,” and she argues that in Orwellian fashion, American people not only walk less, but are afforded less opportunity to walk. Undermined pedestrian transit systems encroaches on people’s liberty, instinct, and health. In Malchik’s article, most of the rhetorical strategies are very effective. She strengthens the credibility successfully by citing experts’ words and narrating her own experiences. With facts and statistics, she interprets the logical reasons of walking.
Kelley uses pathos to highlight the need for change and get her point across to the audience. Kelley uses pathos to stress the need for change. To show the severity of the problem Kelley writes “Tonight while we sleep, several thousand little girls will be working in textile mills, all the night through, in the deafening noise of the spindles and the looms spinning and weaving cotton and wool, silks and ribbons for us to buy. ”(18-22) This demonstrates pathos by using “little girls” for the readers imagine a fragile small child doing laborious work in a factory for hours to come.
The rhetorical occasion of this excerpt is to inform others about the dangers of chemicals on earth’s vegetation and animal life.
Pathos was use often in this story to show his compassion to those affected victims, and his disagreement toward the opposing individuals of the death penalty. In the article, the writer put sentences that had emotion that the writer convoke to the audience. For example, in the last two paragraphs he mentions the case of a murder victim that is not help. At the beginning, Koch showed sadness, then toward the end, he displayed the madness he felt toward those who did not do something to help. He believes that the opposing group toward death penalty are the same as the people that did not do anything to help. With this emotion, the author was able to make the reader thoughtful whether not supporting death penalty makes justice of the inoffensive victim. Although the writer uses a considerable amount of emotion, he does not go to an extreme, which would made his argument emotional for the reader to lost interest of
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.
Throughout Rachel Carson's, "Silent Spring," she uses distinct and striking rhetoric in an abundant matter in order to properly convey her stance on her argument. In the article, she argues how deadly poisons like parathion are inhumane, cruel, and are an unethical solution to a farmer's issues. To properly show her devotion for this she adds rhetorical devices such as ethos, logos, pathos, a abundant amount of rhetorical questions and other cases of imagery to properly portray her argument.
Pathos: “...Guilty of assault with intent to do great bodily and misconduct of office for beating Floyd Dent, 58.” (paragraph 3) - The appeal of pathos is brought forth by showing that an older man was beaten wrongfully. When we, as humans, see another human being harmed, our hearts are usually wrenching. Not only was a human beaten brutally, but a helpless older man, who was causing no harm, was sent into the hospital for the wrong reason.
On September 27, 1962 Rachel Carson released her sixth book, Silent Spring. On publication day, the advance sales of Silent Spring totaled 40,000 copies and another 150 copies were sent to the Book of the Month Club (Frontline: Fooling With Nature, 1998). Silent Spring remained on the bestseller list for almost a year. The world was beginning to take notice. Countless experts and organizations have proclaimed Rachel Carsonâs book the starting point of the environmental movement. Carson described numerous case studies where the use of hazardous pesticides, insecticides, and other chemicals led to environmental problems all over the world. Whether directly or indirectly, everything in the environment is connected and affected by each other. Silent Spring describes, in depth, the harmful effects that chemical control has placed on all components of the environment. They include: air, water, land, wildlife, plant life, and humans. I will discuss each of these categories as examined in Silent Spring along with my personal analysis.
“Can anyone believe it is possible to lay down such a barrage of poisons on the surface of the earth without making it unfit for all life? They should not be called “insecticides,” but “biocides” (Carson, 2015, p.607). Rachel Carson, a marine biologist and conservationist, writes about modern society’s heedless contamination and destruction of the planet and how it affects humanity in “The Obligation to Endure”. This essay is one of many from her book Silent Spring, which was published in 1962. It is a compelling essay calling for agricultural reform. Carson uses all three appeals of argument to persuade the reader. First, the ethical argument stems from the fact that Carson is an influential author, employed by the government. Carson then uses a logical argument to lay out the facts about the
Lastly, Washington uses pathos to appeal to the reader’s emotions. Pathos was used to show how mistreated and how unfairly the blacks were treated compared to the whites. A few black men and a black woman were burned to death for nothing. Neither were charged for a crime. “These burnings without a trial are in the deepest sense unjust to my race; but it is not this unjust alone which stirs my heart.” Washington uses pathos to connect emotionally with the reader by showing the blacks were brutally burned without a fair trial.
In Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring”, the book says, “In 1962, scientists and author Rachel Carson published Silent Spring as a warning to the public about the environmental risks…”(Carson 27). This quote specifies that Rachel Carson has to take responsibility for releasing that information to the public not knowing what they would do with it. Another quote from the text states, “Then a strange blight crept over the area and everything began to change. Some evil spell had settled on the community: mysterious maladies swept the locks of chicken, the cattle and sheep sickened and ded. Everywhere was a shadow of death.”(Carson 28). This quote shows what the chemical is doing to the town and the damage it
The environment deteriorating is a major consequence of society lacking care towards it. If the trend of not protecting the environment continues then its destruction is inevitable. Rachel Carson, well known environmentalist who has a passion towards environmental protection, addresses society about the dangerous spread of a poison, parathion, in her book Silent Spring. Ultimately, Carson disagrees with the spraying of parathion and encourages people to take a stand against its use when explaining the lethal hazards it possesses, criticizing the apathy of humans, and stressing the need for people to speak up.