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Rhetorical Analysis Of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring

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The excerpt taken from Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring leaves a lasting impression on the importance of the environment and how humans have killed hundreds of thousands birds and insects due to the usage of pesticides. She uses rhetorical strategies such as diction and tone to convey what she sees as the destruction of the ecosystem. The careless actions of human beings is shown throughout this passage by the use of diction and tone the author creates. Carson immediately criticizes humans, she refers to their use of pesticides as “a habit of killing”. The reader can sympathize with the animals that have been killed by the plentiful amounts of poison and instead feel something akin to disdain towards the actions of the farmers. Carson also assumes a tone or moral censure when describing the animals’ fates, she victimizes the animal and claims that it is a crime to “eradicate any creature that may annoy or inconvenience us.” Carson makes it seem like these animals were only a nuisance to the farmers and the animals have done absolutely nothing to deserve their fate and …show more content…

She quotes an experiment from the University in Indiana and uses their statistic about how many birds were killed due to the pesticide. Towards the third paragraph, there is a tone shift from logos to pathos. Carson starts asking open ended questions directed to the reader and as the document continues, the more passionate it gets. She goes from using imagery in the first two paragraphs and concludes with an array of metaphors and details that cater more towards opinion rather than factual evidence. This is emphasized when Carson asks; “Who has decided- who has the right to decide…” this quote demonstrates an emotional statement, the word ‘right’ conveying the emotion. At the beginning of the passage, it was logos based but as the excerpt continues, the more pathos based it

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Carson emphasizes the impact humans have on the environment by integrating a disdainful tone and rhetorical questions. In the beginning of the Silent Spring, Carson’s disdain towards the careless farmers’ use of parathion is evident by her constant use of strong language such as “eradicating”, “habit of killing”, and “distasteful”. By using blunt diction, Carson emphasizes that the use of a dangerous poison, like parathion, are worsening the condition of the environment, and even portrays the farmers who use the poison as murders when she states that they are on a “mission of death”. In addition, Carson further highlights the unethical actions of the farmers by providing an example of how the “growing trend” of killing the “inconvenien[t]” has not only affected the animals living in the environment, but the humans as well.

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