Silent Spring

It is Carson’s belief that the public must take action to end environmental destruction. What are some specific rhetorical strategies that Carson uses to engage the public in her argument? Explore two or three strategies that are present throughout the text.

While Carson discusses many impacts of pesticides, she chooses to name the book Silent Spring. Why is this the title of the text? Provide evidence from the text to support your argument.

Carson spends significantly more time describing the negative impacts of chemicals than describing the positive alternatives that could be implemented. In fact, her final chapter is relatively short compared to the rest of the book. Why does Carson choose to so thoroughly document the harm being done? 

There are many times where Carson refers to the irony of humans being put in harm’s way by interventions that they themselves created. What are ways that this kind of irony is still present in human society? What factors are at play in keeping humans from understanding the destruction they are causing?

Often, Carson refers to nature’s web of life as a set of complex relationships between living things. How is this web impacted by the use of chemicals? What are some of the points of potential intervention?

While most of Carson’s writing is filled with specific, scientific evidence for her arguments, she chooses to begin her text with a fake example. Why does she use this anecdote before providing her arguments? Explain using evidence from multiple sections of the text.

Most of Silent Spring is divided into sections that are physically separated: water, air, and soil each get their own chapters. Why did Carson arrange her text in this way? What effect does the arrangement have on the audience’s understanding?

Carson argues that humans have developed a different view of poisons than in the past. Has this attitude changed from 1962 to the present? If so, in what ways? If not, what has allowed that attitude to stay the same?