March 2023 – Written by Rahma Kedir
Silent Spring: A Call to Action Against Environmental Destruction
Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring” shifted my perspective on environmental degradation. Her writing, filled with emotional depth, highlights the gravity of environmental destruction, and how we often experience it without knowing.
There is a discreet message being sent through the use of beautiful imagery, and allowed me to resonate and empathize with the countryside Carson is describing, ultimately feeling negative and deepening sympathy towards the degradation being employed upon the plants in this story.
Carson’s story evokes emotion and feelings of reflection upon readers through powerful techniques, while highlighting the cruciality of environmental degradation.
Carson evokes a level of sympathy towards the countryside being described through the urgent tone seen in her writing. For example, Carson’s description of the countryside entails, “On the mornings that had once throbbed with the dawn chorus of robins, catbirds, doves, jays, wrens, and scores of other bird voices there was now no sound; only silence lay over the fields and woods and marsh”.
Carson reflects upon a whimsical and nostalgic time by detailing a morning in the countryside, before strikingly pivoting to a dark and somber scene that is the present reality.
Carson’s use of juxtaposition in describing the sound of the “dawn chorus” that has suddenly been replaced by “only silence”, allows readers to recognize the contrast and severity of the dramatic change in the environment that’s taken place. Carson describes the morning as something that “throbs”, assigning lively qualities towards nature, creating an even more devastating scene that allows readers to feel as if they have truly felt a loss.
The two techniques used here evoke emotion, drawing readers towards reflection upon their relationship with nature. The issue of environmental pesticides in this story has a greater emotional effect on readers because of the depth and attachment readers have formed through literature in this case.
Carson has built an imaginative world that readers are bound to resonate with on a deeper level, that numbers may not appeal to readers to the same extent. In this example, Carson begins the story by reflecting on a beautiful time before the destruction of nature, which sparks hope and imagination for readers, ultimately aspiring for change as well. This story speaks to a change in perspective, critical thinking, and attitude toward the world, where policy and science tend to have a more straightforward and dominant tone to the same message being sent.
Margaret Atwood’s poem, “The Moment”, has allowed me to re-contemplate my relationship with nature and how the world views it today. Atwood’s use of tone, imagery, and irony has fostered a newfound perspective on themes of human ownership and power dynamics.
Atwood writes, “No, they whisper, you own nothing”, displaying a calm and lulling tone while still sending a bold message. The whisper of nature as well as the matter-of-fact-like message being sent suggests the whispers were always there if human existence ever took it upon themselves to listen.
The end of the first paragraph shows the peak moment for humans conquering nature and reflecting contently on everything achieved. Atwood asserts a prideful and dominant tone in narrating the human story, characterizing humans as such in this process, before writing a calm paragraph to follow in narrating nature’s perspective. Atwood writes how the trees feel, finally giving nature its opportunity to speak its meaning and have a narrative in the story. Nature says, “You never found us”, reflecting another powerful technique Atwood uses, irony.
Through this line, Atwood suggests that humans never really understood the essence of nature and its intricacies, rather we simply saw it as something to possess and control.
The ironic element being humans have extensively exploited and mistreated nature to such extreme extents while still managing to never understand nature at the root for what it is. Such a bold statement that would seem false at first sight leads readers to contemplate the narrow mindset humanity has held toward its toxic relationship with nature.
Atwood has successfully provided immense perspective and challenged the dynamic society and nature have, which is an attribute of learning science and policy cannot always do. Poetry has such a powerful impact because of its introspective nature and can provoke deeper meaning within its layers, that numbers and facts cannot achieve in the same way.
Humanities and writing as a whole are significant in touching the souls of people because of the way they can evoke emotion through a story, leading to empathetic feelings and an inspiring mindset.