ShodhPatra: International Journal of Science and Humanities

A Cognizant Study of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring In the light of Ecocriticism

Ecocriticism in Silent Spring refers to the critical analysis of Rachel Carson's book "Silent Spring" through the lens of environmentalism, examining how the text portrays the harmful effects of pesticides on the ecosystem, highlighting the interconnectedness of humans and nature, and critiquing the human tendency to exploit the environment for economic gain, essentially laying the foundation for the modern ecocriticism movement. Silent Spring seeded important new ideas in the public mind that spraying chemicals to control insect populations can also kill birds that feed on dead or dying insects. That chemicals travel not only through the environment, but through food chains. Those chemicals that don’t outright can accumulate in fat tissues causing medical problems later on, and that chemical can be transferred generationally from mothers to their young. These were ideas new to the public consciousness, and paramount among them was the notion that life is much more interconnected and interdependent than people assumed or understood.