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Ch. 6 (Earth's Green Mantle): Rachel Carson - Coggle Diagram
Ch. 6 (Earth's Green Mantle): Rachel Carson
Stylistic Choice #1: Imagery
"The land of the sage is the land of the high western plains and the lower slopes of the mountains that rise above them, a land born of the great uplift of the Rocky Mountains system many millions of years ago. It is a place of harsh extremes of climate: of long winters when blizzards drive down from the mountains and now lies deep on the plains, of summers whose heat is relieved by only scanty rains, with drought biting deep into the soil, and drying winds stealing moisture from leaf and stem."
"Through the labor of the beavers, a lake backed up. Trout in the mountain streams seldom were more than six inches long; in the lake they thrived so prodigiously that many grew to five pounds"
Water, soil, and the earth's green mantle of plants make up the world that supports animal life of the earth."
Recurring themes/ideas:
Country: United States of America
"In the name of progress the land management agencies have set about to satisfy the insatiable demands of the cattlemen for more grazing land."
"It is also an era dominated by industry, in which the right to make a dollar at whatever cost is seldom challenged."
Anti-capitalist propaganda
"Yet is our real problem not one of overproduction?"”
"In the economy of nature the natural vegetation has its essential place."
Agriculture
"Nature has introduced a great variety into the landscape, but man has displaced a passion for simplifying it. Thus he undoes the built-in checks and balances by which nature holds the species within bounds."
The author talks about agriculture before and after humans interfered. She analyses the impact on crops and nature as a whole.
"People spraying their lawns with 2,4-D and becoming wet with spray have occasionally developed severe neuritis and even paralysis.
Philosophical questioning
"Nature has introduced great variety into the landscape, but man has displayed a passion for simplifying it."
"[...] man acquired significant power to alter the nature of his world."
"[...] the contamination of man's total environment with such substances of incredible potential for harm"
"[...] extremely effective control of many kinds of unwanted vegetation might be achieved by paying more attention to the role of plant-eating insects."
Stylistic Choice #2: Point of View/Existentialism
"If we see any immediate utility in a plant we foster it. If for any reason we find its presence undesirable or merely a matter of indifference, we may condemn it to destruction forthwith."
"[...] he could not exist without the plants that harness the sun's energy and manufacture the basic foodstuffs he depends upon for life"
"[...] the development of resistance to insecticides is changing the genetic factors of insects and perhaps other organisms."
Stylistic Choice #3: Rhetorical Questions
"Have we fallen into a mesmerised state that makes us accept as inevitable that which is inferior or detrimental, as though having lost the will or the vision to demand that which is good?"
"What are the results?"
"What would become of the moose?"
Instructions
How does Carson construct her argument in chapter 6? Create a visual for this (outline, timeline, etc.). Identify 3 stylistic choices that you find interesting from each chapter.
What are some recurring themes or ideas from Carson’s writing?
Identify 3 passages which exemplify your answers above. How might these passages relate to another text or body of work from this unit?
3 "Paper-1 Styled" Passages:
"Some 10,000 acres ... the living world was shattered" pages 67-68
"Such vegetation is also the habitat of wild bees and other pollinating insects. Man is more dependent on these wild pollinators [...] these are not the men who order the wholesale drenching of landscape with chemicals" - pages 73-74
"It is also an era dominated by industry, in which the right to make a dollar at whatever cost is seldom challenged."