Rachel Carson

Title: Up Close: Rachel Carson

Author: Ellen Levine

Pages: 224/224

Genre: Biography

I have just finished the biography Up Close: Rachel Carson, and now I know so much more about Rachel Carson. I know not only the facts like; where was she born, who is her family, what did she do, but I know how she did it and what she went through. Rachel Carson wrote a number of books, newspaper columns, and she made many speeches after publishing her book Silent Spring. I learned that the book got its name because birds were dying so there would be a "Silent Spring", meaning no birds would be chirping. I found this title very poetic. Rachel had a very short life, she died 18 months after publishing Silent Spring, at the age of 57. She had died of breast cancer that had crept up on her over the years. She had multiple books about the ocean, but her last was about pesticides, mainly DDT. DDT was later banned along with dozens of environmental laws. Rachel changed the world, but what is really sad is that she is not very well known. Her books were International Best Sellers. "A peer in the British House of Lords told of  the Polynesian cannibal chief who 'no longer allows his tribe to eat Americans because their fat is contaminated with chlorinated hydrocarbons'" (Levine183). This quote shows that this book, or at least

it's information went all over the world. Rachel really gave every last bit of her life to the world. When she was bed ridden or confined to a wheelchair she never stopped writing, or researching. Not only did she help the Earth, but she even proved a point for women. She her self says she is not a feminist but she still did the work of one.

1.      What is the ‘great human path’?  Is there one that I can clearly describe?

2.      Describe your figure’s early life, family, homeland, and upbringing.

3.      In your opinion, how did these facts (above) reflect/influence your figure?

The paths of great humans are all different. Some may live long lives, some short, some might have had difficulties growing up, others could have been very comfortable financially. Some have gone to prison, others have had nothing but approval, some might have gone through discrimination, others did not. The one thing that all of their paths have in common is that they did something great.

Rachel grew up with an older brother, sister, mother, and father. Their family was financially stable until the great depression. Later on her father died and she was the sole provider for her family.  Later on her sister died leaving her two daughters to Rachel and her mother. Rachel's family used to live on a farmland, but then Rachel's family moved into a house that Rachel was renting as she went to college. 

 Rachel was always interested in the world around her, this and her loving family made her so successful. 

I believe since her family was not wealthy, she learned to be thankful for what she had and not to be greedy. What influenced Rachel the most was her being the only income for the family and balancing college. From this she had learned to be very hard working and dedicated.

This is another primary source. It is the final paragraph of Silent Spring.

"The 'control of nature' is a phrase conceived in arrogance, born of the Neanderthal age of biology and philosophy, when it was supposed that nature exists for the convenience of man. The concepts and practices of applied entomology for the most part date from that  Stone Age of Science. It is our alarming misfortune that so primitive a science has armed itself with the most modern and terrible weapons, and that in turning them against the earth"