Analysis Of Silent Spring By Rachel Carson

The book, Silent Spring, by Rachel Carson is regarded as the most significant environmental novel as it was the start of the environmental movement. This book highlights the human poisoning of the biosphere through chemicals aimed at pests and disease control, particularly dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT). DDT pesticides were particularly harmful because as they entered the biosphere, they not only killed the bugs but also entered the food chain. DDT accumulated in the fatty tissues of animals and humans which had potential to cause cancer and genetic damage. This also contaminated world food supply as DDT can enter any animal that we eat. Despite the immense effect of DDT some insects survived and passed on their resistance resulting in tougher descendants, so more toxic insecticides needed to be
The main idea of the book was that the perceived split between man and nature isn’t real and that your body is associated to the world around you. In Rachel Carson’s time, nature was considered to be an “it” and also man had a dominion over animals which some people took as permission to kill them without any guilt. Rachel Carlson highlighted that “we” humans are not distinct from “it” and we were dependent on the world around us. Rachel’s Carson’s book was a success as it raised awareness of the social hazards of DDT As of now pesticides have been increasingly regulated, and also safety standards for pesticides have been improved with much credit to Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring. This paper is based on the thesis is that Rachel Carson’s Silent spring was not only prescient in 1962 when it was first published but it remains