Journal: Silent Spring by By Rachel Carson

I like the way Rachel Carson begins her piece with “A Fable for Tomorrow.” It makes her point of view very clear and shows exactly what she believes is the perfect way to live in the perfect town. She shows that perfect town, with “fields of grain and hillsides of orchards where, in spring, white clouds of bloom drifted above the green fields,” and then explains all the things that could go wrong, such as the day no birds sang and the voices of no animal could be heard all because they had died from pesticides. This clear introduction set up nicely for her to explain how pesticides are killing animals and that although there is no town in America who has seen all the animals die like in the fable, every town has suffered from at least one of the horrible deaths of animals. I think with the mix of the story and the facts and anecdotes, Carson was able to change the way people think about pesticides and how they affect the environment.