By Rachel Carson
Silent Spring is a a non-fiction book of environmental science written by Rachel Carson. It combined rigorous research with a powerful narrative writing style to reveal the impacts of un-checked pesticides on humans and the environment. Her book hit a nerve with the American public, inspired an environmental movement, and may have even lead to the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Talk about powerful, tangible impact! What made Carson’s book so impactful?
There was once a town in the heart of America where all life seemed to be in harmony with its surroundings. The town lay in the midst of a checkerboard of prosperous farms, with fields of grain and hillsides of orchards, where white clouds of bloom drifted above the green land. In autumn, oak and maple and birch set up a blaze of color that flamed and flickered across a backdrop of pines. Then foxes barked in the hills and deer crossed the fields, half-hidden in the mists of the mornings. Along the roads, laurel, viburnum, and alder, great ferns and wildflowers delighted the traveler’s eye through much of the year (…)
Then, one spring, a strange blight crept over the area, and everything began to change.
Some evil spell had settled on the community; mysterious maladies swept the flocks of chickens, and the cattle and sheep sickened and died. Everywhere was the shadow of death. The farmers told of much illness among their families. In the town, the doctors were becoming more and more puzzled by new kinds of sickness that had appeared among their patients. There had been several sudden and unexplained deaths, not only among the adults but also among the children, who would be stricken while they were at play, and would die within a few hours. And there was a strange stillness. The birds, for example—where had they gone?
Rachel Carson
- Think about the use of tone in this essay. How does it shift from the first paragraph to the second? What word choice and descriptions stand out to you in contrast?
- What effect does it have to list the specific names of plants and flowers have?
- We’re very “zoomed out” in these passages, looking at an anonymous town, nameless families… why might this be?
- What is the relationship between the environment and people in this essay?
- What else do you notice about style, structure, or content? What questions do you have?
GREEN & GROW 