The theme of Silent Spring would definitely have to be related to the centralized idea of the
environment. The main idea
behind this novel is how pesticides, which are applied to the
environment to stop pests from eating away at crops or disturbing crop growths actually do more harm than good. Carson based her theme on the environment because she wrote from the perspective of what the pesticides would be doing to the environment and how we should all take the environment more seriously because harm to the environment would eventually lead to harm for us. When the pesticides get trapped in the soil and it rains, the pesticides will enter our water supplies. When it gets into our water supply, we will consume it in our bodies and it will cause serious nervous, endocrine, reproductive and organ failures. Luckily for us, we are at the top of the food chain so the animals before us, such as the birds are the ones affected more severely and faster than we would be.
Reading Silent Spring by
Rachel Carson is a complete wake up call for all people because at some point or another every one of us has been exposed to harmful pesticides intentionally or unintentionally. Rachel Carson explains that when DDT was sprayed to help control the pests in some agriculture lands in the Midwest it was doing more harm than
Carson’s topic was on pesticides and the environment. Carson focused in on the different kinds of pesticides such as DDT, Chlordane, Heptachlor, Dieldrin, Aldrin, and Endrin. Each pesticide has a certain agricultural crop that it works best to kill the pests off of. Each pesticide has its own weight that it can damage, for example Aldrin causes kidney and liver failure and when ingested as the size of an aspirin pill it is enough to kill almost four hundred quails! Endrin is the most toxic of the chlorinated hydrocarbons and is highly dangerous for humans. As for birds, Endrin is about three hundred times more poisonous than any other pesticide. Carson’s focus was about the different types of pesticides and what affects it had on the soil and the well beings of humans and wildlife.
Carson’s main points throughout this novel would have to be that she wanted DDT to be banned and she wanted the use of pesticides to be banished. Carson made many pleas with the government to see that DDT was doing more harm than good. Carson recorded the average deaths of cardinals and robins in one area of the United States and she saw that when DDT was sprayed in that area there were hardly any living birds at all. Carson saw that the birds would slowly get convulsions and then suddenly die. A report earlier showed that nearly all of the cardinals and robins in that area died and had been on the streets where DDT was sprayed. In that area the overall population of the birds fell because the DDT in their bodies was poisonous that caused them to go into severe convulsions and die instantly.
Another point that Carson wanted to emphasize was how the spraying of pesticides was doing more harm than the good it was intended to do. Carson stressed the importance of letting the environment attain dynamic equilibrium and for humans not to interfere with the process. Often when farmers are fed up of pests feeding on their crops and when pests stop the growth of their crops they resort to the use of pesticides. Pesticides may seem like the easy way out for the farmers, but in the long run it is the worst decision that a farmer could possibly make. The pesticides would then be ingested by the pests and the pests would die. Settling into the soil, the pesticides would eventually establish its presence in the soil and make the soil infertile. As the years go by, the pesticides would continue to seep further and further down into the soil and when it rains this water will gather in lakes and other bodies of water in the form of runoff. When the pesticides get into our water source, it will poison us and therefore these same pesticides will do more harm than good. Carson quotes,
“One of the most sinister features of DDT and related chemicals is the way they are passed on from all the links of the food chain, “(p.22).Carson stresses that pesticides are the wrong way to handle pests and that nature should regain its balance by itself and not be interfered with pesticides used by humans.
Carson’s last and final topic of focus throughout her novel was that banning pesticides would help to stop the further damage that pesticides have done so far. As Carson describes how many lakes have been toxic and those lakes are no longer inhabitable by the fishes and beavers that used to live in it. After the US government saw how much harm these pesticides were doing rather than helping out the environment, they enforced restrictions on the use of it. Carson’s goal had been achieved, but the affects of the DDT had been irreversible. Carson’s activist persona helped to ban this highly toxic pesticide and it has helped to gain awareness to the public to the many dangers of this pesticide