In class:
Journaling exercise:
What reading have you enjoyed the most? Why?
Rachel Carson:
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=2714989n
Imagine you are reading this in 1962. John Glenn has recently become the first American to orbit Earth. The U.S is in the middle of the Cuban Missile Crisis. John Paul XXIII has just opened the Second Vatican Council. What about Carson's writing might resonate? How do you imagine Americans responding to her work in the midst of this period of scientific, theological, and political expansion? Pick out a passage that you found significant to the time period and explain why you see it as contextually relevant.
(Discuss in groups, have one person post a response to the blog with everyone's name on it.)
How is Sandra Steingraber similar or different from Carson?
What rhetorical strategies do both woman use to appeal to their audience?
Share Photos.
At that time it was one more thing that frightened the U.S. public. Now they had to fear that their own environment could be unsafe. For example, the bald eagle had become less abundant due to the poisons that we have put into the Earth. We had driven away the symbol of our country. How ignorant can we be as a nation when we poison our own environment and threaten everything that we have fought to the death to defend?
ReplyDeleteTyler Main
Timothy Landwehr
Rebecca Smidt
Chelsey Branderhorst
Emily N., Sam C., Matt B.
ReplyDeleteOne of her tools she likes to use is painting a literary picture of a fantastic scenery, then she is able to take that away. By doing this she is able to grab the readers attention, and take ownership of the scene. It also allows the reader to be placed in an emotional state about the environment. Once she reveals the reality the reader becomes more inclined to act.
"No witchcraft, no enemy action had silenced the rebirth of new life in this stricken world. The people had done it themselves." In a way Carson mocks the fear stricken world that is being created by what is going on at the time it was written. Humans are trying to blame everyone but themselves while Carson strives to make them open their eyes. By nature, humans don't appreciate being blamed whether it is our fault or not so the book probably wasn't taken very readily by the public.
ReplyDeleteLong Nguyen
Victoria Foerster
Kelsey Keiran
Dillon Baker
Meghan, Jody, Kyle, Steve
ReplyDeleteAmericans wanted to believe that scientist of the time knew what they were doing and would not invent things that would potentially harm them. That technology was being invented for the better and not for the worst, which in the case of the pesticides they were causing harmful damage to people, animals, and the environment. I thin Americans were shocked and had a bad opinion on the writing because it was questioning the new technology that had just been discovered.
I think Carson's writing helped Americans see that not everything we do to improve our life is necessarily better for the rest of the enviornment. If the environment is being impacted then we will be too because we need an environment to live off of.
"Pigeons are suddenly dropping out of the sky dead . . . There has been no parallel in the present century, or at any other time so far as I am aware, [this is] the biggest ris to wildlife and game that has ever occured in the country."
page 373 paragraph 2
This describes the theme of what is happening with the pesicides and how it's not just bugs that are dying. It was birds as well. It really opened peoples eyes to what was really happening.