Rachael Carson's Elixirs of Death

Introduction

For many decades insects were and still are considered enemies mainly for farmers. In the early 1900's there was a woman biologist who devoted her entire life to saving nature. Her name was Rachel Carson and she changed the whole idea of what people thought was the right solution for getting rid of insects. At that time, scientists discovered pesticides that would kill the insects and end the war between farmers and insects that attacked their crops. Rachel Carson introduced her point of view from her scientific research to the public through her book titled Silent Spring, which is about humans destroying the entire earth and all the living things including humans themselves instead of supporting life.

Analysis

Carson provides minute details about the synthetic pesticides, which in less than twenty years have been so thoroughly distributed throughout the world that they are truly everywhere. Every human being now has contact with dangerous chemicals every moment of his life - even from conception. These chemicals have made their way deep into the groundwater; they stay in the soil to which they are applied, remaining detectable even 12 years later; they collect in the fatty tissues of wild and domestic animals. Animals are so widely affected that scientists have a hard time finding uncontaminated animals to serve as controls in experiments. For almost every human being on the planet, synthetic pesticides are present in mother's milk and probably in bodily tissues from the beginning (Corbett,pp. 60-72).

The mood in the extracts from Rachel Carson's Silent Spring changes continually from beginning to end. The first paragraph has an almost fairy-tale feeling to it - the tone is pleasant and calm and the opening, “There was once a town…” is quite similar to that you'd find in a child's story book. The chapter title, “A Fable for Tomorrow” also reinforces this story-like sentiment. This is supported by the dreamy imagery Carson uses; she talks of mists and snow, and describes the spring blooms as “white clouds”. Carson describes various natural elements of this town, rather than it's architecture or it's inhabitants, and does so using long, flowing sentences echoing the soft, undulating landscapes she is talking about. Even the words she uses are generally soft-sounding, which reflect this harmonious tone (Carson,pp 12-189).

As Rachel Carson was a little girl, she already knew that she wanted to be a recognized writer when she grows up. She wrote her first work by the age of ten. She also was interested in nature. (PBS) Rachel was introduced to nature by her mother and it became her religion. She was fascinated with it and she believed in herself as she believed in nature. This was the biggest thing that motivated her life and helped her define her own beliefs and her inner self being.

During her scientific research, Carson discovered that people were misusing pesticides to kill insects that caused much damage. She became aware of the harm that people were doing to earth and all the ...