preview

The Dangers Of Parathion In Rachel Carson's Silent Spring

Decent Essays

In the mid-20th century, farmers used a toxic insecticide named parathion in an attempt to control pests detrimental to their crops. Rachel Carson was a biologist who wrote pamphlets (Lear) on conservation and natural resources designed to inform people on the beauty of the living world. In an excerpt from her 1962 work Silent Spring, Carson calls upon the public to take action against the use of parathion by highlighting its catastrophic nature and vilifying the agricultural community for their negligence. Carson emphasizes the hazards of parathion by exposing its fatal consequences, thereby invoking a need for its prevention. For example, Carson claims that the issue of blackbirds eating nearby cornfields could have been easily resolved, but farmers resorted to sending airplanes on a “mission of death”. Carson uses warlike imagery through the farmers’ intention for the planes to be used against the birds through parathion instead of for transportation. Her dramatic phrasing for the operation depicts danger more seriously if she had used less stirring language such as ‘to spread the poison’. Carson goes on to state that parathion is “not a specific for blackbirds,” but a ‘universal killer,’ implying that the poison is a threat to almost everything including humans. By providing a detail in the issue that relates to humans directly, she gives even those who do not care as much about nature a cause for concern - a risk to their own lives. Furthermore, Carson reports the

Get Access