Analysis Of Under The Sea-Wind By Rachel Carson

Have you ever heard of the toxic chemical DDT? It was a commonly used insect repellent, that is until Rachel Carson wrote about how dangerous it actually is. Rachel Carson was a writer, marine biologist, and environmentalist. She is most well known for her writing on pesticides, especially DDT, that left a huge influence on the chemical industry. Carson wrote six books in her lifetime, each dealing with some topic of ecology. Rachel Carson did most of her writing during the 1930’s through the 1960’s. “She was able to hold the audience’s attention through understandable explanations and suggestions written in a graceful, impassioned style” (“Rachel Carson” 588). Carson’s timeless writing left an impact on citizens, industries, as well as the

In the summer of 1932 Carson “intends to pursue her Ph.D. at Johns Hopkins in marine biology, [however] lack of funds during the Great Depression forces her to drop out of graduate school” (Lear). It is possible that if Carson had attended graduate school, she may have written completely different books. “Under the Sea-Wind” received very good reviews when it was published in 1941. However, the reviews were besieged by news of the bombing of Pearl Harbor and World War II. Although the war caused the sales of her book to decline, Carson was able to learn a substantial amount of information about pesticides and the ocean through the war effort.

Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring” influenced the views of many after it exposed just how harsh the use of pesticides are. “A generation of Americans found their perspectives widened and their activism inspired by Carson’s powerful work” (Stoll). Carson’s work helped to open the eyes of citizens to how the chemicals that they were using everyday affected the wildlife and environment around them. Carson wrote in such a way that was understandable and offered many suggestions, which makes it readable even

“Carson showed how experts trusted their own creations too greatly and how they themselves were implicated in a vast complex of private and public interests designed to produce profits for chemical manufacturers and the growing agribusiness sector” (Stoll). Carson revealed how the industries were more about making a profit than protecting the environment. In a way, Carson woke the industry up and showed them just how much harm they were doing. “Much of the data and case studies that Carson drew from weren’t new; the scientific community had known of these findings for some time, but Carson was the first to put them all together for the general public and to draw stark and far reaching conclusions”