Rhetorical Analysis of Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring” Anonymous College

In September of 1962, Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring was published directly to alarm the public of the harmfulness of chemical pesticides. Those pesticides include DDT, dieldrin, chlordane, and more that were being used by a way of aerial spraying in an attempt to control insect populations on a very large scale. She goes on to say that they should not be called 'insecticides', but ‘biocides' because they kill many living things good and bad. Silent Spring is an exposé because it calls out companies and many more to bring a call to action. Carson was a marine biologist which back then the position held very low esteem in the nuclear age, she wasn’t living up to the regular woman image. Having no affiliation with big institutions meaning she didn’t have a very big voice to be heard. Silent Spring lead to a huge global environmental movement that still today is taking place, over 55 years ago think about that. Carson uses plenty of rhetorical strategies throughout Silent Spring such as audience, style, language, tone, message, and more. The following rhetorical analysis will investigate Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring and its use of rhetorical strategies and conventions.

Rachel Carson’s audience in Silent Spring is the American...