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Rhetorical Devices In Silent Spring

Decent Essays

Rachel Carson is a noted biologist who studies biology, a branch of science addressing living organisms, yet she has written a book called Silent Spring to speak about the harmful effects of pesticides on nature. Carson doesn’t write about birds’ genetic and physical makeup, the role of them in the animal food chain, or even how to identify their unbelievable bird songs, yet strongly attests the fight for a well developed environment containing birds, humans, and insects is just and necessary. To Carson, the war for a natural environment is instantly essential for holding on to her true love for the study of biology. Thus Carson claims that whether it be a direct hit towards birds or an indirect hit towards humans and wildlife, farmers need to understand the effects and abandon the usage of pesticides in order to save the environment by appealing to officials, farmers, and Americans in her 1962 book, Silent Spring. She positions her defense by using rhetorical devices such as rhetorical questioning to establish logos, juxtaposing ideas, and using connotative and denotative diction.

From the start, the reader becomes interested and questions the concept of deadly poisons, its authorization, and its detrimental effects. As the reader continues to read through the excerpt, they answer these questions themselves when Carson uses rhetorical questioning. By having the audience use their own logical reasoning and contemplate their own answers, he/she may almost always put some blame on the people who allowed the usage of poisons. For example, when she exclaims, “... who guarded the poisoned area... Who kept vigilant watch to tell the innocent stroller… coated with a lethal film?” (Carson), one deems who’s fault it would be if someone were to get hurt from parathion. Would it be the farmer for using parathion, the stroller for being curious, or the guard who wasn’t there to warn people about the deadly poison? Carson effectively shows the audience that it doesn’t matter who would be at fault, rather the substance that caused this situation in the first place--parathion. allows the reader to choose a side pointing mostly towards her side because the set of questions one after the other makes you choose and

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