A Fable For Tomorrow By Rachel Carson Summary

"If ... we have concluded that we are being asked to take senseless and frightening risks, then we should no longer accept the counsel of those who tells us that we must fill our world with poisonous chemicals; we should look about and see what other course is open to us" (Carson, Silent Spring). Pesticides were introduced into the natural world near the middle of the 20th century as a means of allowing crops to develop resistance to disease and insect infestation, thus allowing vegetation to grow more effectively. Initially, various pesticides used to promote crop development appeared to be doing just that. However, as the years passed by, pesticides began to exhibit the reverse effect. Consequently, numerous bacteria and insect species appeared
Carson’s play on negative diction, immediately after her use of positive diction seizes the reader’s utmost attention. Life, as it is represented through the depiction of the small American town, has transitioned into a nightmare, cloaked in the gloom of death. “ Then 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; the cattle and sheep sickened and died. Everywhere was a shadow of death” (Carson 57). Death becomes a common theme in the town as the town’s people suddenly begin to fall ill and die of unknown diseases. The once light and ethereal atmosphere illustrated through prior portions of the essay has become somber and gloomy. It is almost as if the town has been wrapped in a black cloak of