Rhetorical Analysis of Silent Spring: By Rachel Carson
Introduction
I was reading a 2012 article by Eliza Griswold titled “How ‘Silent Spring’ Ignited the Environmental Movement” on the New York Times website, and it caught my attention. According to the article, Silent Spring argues against the unregulated use of pesticides, which are very harmful to the environment. Once they enter the biosphere, pesticides not only kill bugs, but they also penetrate the food chain. This threatens fish populations, birds, and even the health of children. In developing her arguments, Carson drew from case studies that were not new to the scientific community. She was, however, the first one to compile the case studies for the consumption of the general public. Upon reading the book myself, I could not help but notice how Carson powerfully used language to convince the audience. In this essay, I will discuss the rhetorical strategies used by Rachel Carson in her book and explain their effectiveness.
Published in 1962, Silent Spring is the book that ignited the environmental movement. The book focused on the negative impacts of chemical pesticides, which were at the time largely used for agricultural activities in the USA. In her book, Carson (1962) explained the workings of synthetic pesticides, their negative impacts on our environment, and how sustainable ways could be used to protect the environment from their effects. The book’s messages are relevant even today, just as it was in 1960. It argues that since we are dependent on the environment, we should take precautions to protect it.
Rhetorical Strategies by Author
To grab the attention of the general public and to inspire people to change the way they treat the environment, Carson (1962) use different rhetorical strategies: ethos, logos, and apocalypse trope. The author’s use of the apocalypse trope is evident right from the beginning of the book. For instance, the book is dedicated to Albert Schweitzer, who once said: “Man has lost the capacity to foresee and to forestall. He will end by destroying the earth.” The purpose of this quote is to get readers thinking before they get to page one. Apocalyptic rhetoric is characterized by the use of mental images about future destruction. This rhetoric is mostly used in the bible, but environmentalists also use it; it is based on risky perceptions. Carson’s Silent Spring is full of apocalyptic rhetoric. She begins her book by describing an attractive farming town located in the middle of America. She describes the farming town as having a beautiful landscape and filled with healthy farm animals, trout, deer, foxes, and numerous bird species. After giving us this beautiful picture, she then proceeds to compare this farming town to a similar town in which: “everywhere was a shadow of death,” and befallen by a “strange stillness.” Another characteristic of “apocalypticism” is that it is filled with imagination because much of what is explained is yet to come. While Carson writes about a town that doesn’t exist in reality, the imagined tragedies can quickly become a reality.
Besides the use of apocalyptic rhetoric, Silent Spring is also full of logos. In part 2, for example, the author uses many scientific and evolutionary facts to convince readers of the impacts of humans on the environment. For instance, she writes that “it took hundreds of millions of years to produce the life that now inhabits the earth.” She also explains that while “time is the essential ingredient” required for balance to be achieved on earth, “in the modern world, there is no time.” Carson’s message is meant to make the general public have an in-depth understanding of what’s happening to the environment or earth. She draws from the human activities that result in environmental pollution. Instead of commending innovation in agriculture, for example, she criticizes large-scale agriculture and argues that its activities will speed up the rate of environmental degradation.
In addition to the above two rhetorical strategies, Carson also uses ethos in her book by paining environmental treatment in the light of wrong and right. In part one, for instance, she writes about “an evil spell” that ruined the beautiful and attractive town that was situated in the Middle of America. She proceeds to write that “No witchcraft, no enemy action had silenced the rebirth of new life in this stricken world. The people had done it themselves.” In the passage, the author describes how the people of the town treated their land by explaining that it was not enemy action or witchcraft that was the cause of the devastation. Here, Carson shows how evil and wrong it is to abuse the land.
Effectiveness of the Rhetoric Strategies
Carson used the above rhetorical strategies to grab the attention of her readers, most of whom were concerned citizens who had discovered squirrels and robins poisoned by the pesticides in their farms. Her audience was not just the scientific community and the government, but also the entire American public. The rhetorical strategies used are not only demand and informative, but they are also easily understood by general public readers. She not only states the way things happen, but she also backs her statements with facts. Within her facts, she includes happenings in real life, such as soil and lakes being contaminated. Her strategies are beneficial in appealing to the emotions of the reader. The rhetorical strategies above are very useful in informing the audience about the dangers of using chemicals in the environment.
Conclusions
The focus of this essay was to explore the rhetorical strategies used to communicate issues related to the environment. Environmentalists usually employ different strategies to convince their audiences. Silent Spring is a book written by Rachel Carson, and she employs different rhetorical strategies such as apocalyptic tropes, logos, and ethos to persuade her readers about the dangers of using farm chemicals. In her use of ethos, she paints certain activities as being good and other activities as being wrong for the environment. In using logos, Carson draws from factual information or data from the scientific community. Her use of apocalyptic tropes involves using mental images to paint the destruction of the current earth in the near future by environmentally harmful human activities.
Works Cited