The Obligation to Endure Questions

Discussion Questions “The Obligation to Endure” by Rachel Carson 1. What is Carson’s thesis statement? At what point does she state it? Her thesis is, “The most alarming of all man’s assaults to the environment is the contamination of air, earth, rivers, and sea with dangerous lethal metals”. I believe that sentence is her thesis since it summarizes the entire essay and gives her position on an issue. She states this around the beginning of her article towards the 2nd paragraph. 2. What is the significance of the essay’s title? Judging from just the title alone, one may say that it is dealing with perseverance during rough upcomings. After reading the article, the environment is struggling to maintain balance and persevere despite human’s impact on it. This title gives out a serious, demanding tone. 3. Throughout her essay, Carson cites statistics and includes the opinions of experts. Is this effective? Explain. I believe it is effective since it can provide extra reinforcement to her position. Readers can read the article and agree with just the reasoning, but sometimes, the people need extra information to understand the author's position. The statistics can convince the readers and ease a reader’s mind by presented experts specialized in said topic. 4. Where in her essay does Carson appeal to logic? To Emotions? To Ethics? In paragraph 20, the author includes expert opinions on the issue which would be appealing to Ethos. In paragraph 22, the author proceeds to ask a series of thoughtful questions that require logical thinking; due to this, that section of her essay is appealing to logos. In paragraph 16, the author states, “Now the beauty they hopefully created is threatened with complete destruction as disease sweeps…” She uses emotional words, like beauty and destruction, that will appeal to the people making it pathos. 5. In paragraph 12, Carson concedes the point that insects can cause problems. Does she refute this point well? Explain. The author disproves the idea that insects are the main cause of problems by stating other events where insects were not the problem as well as experts' opinions. I believe that she did a good job at refuting the common issue since I, myself, was convinced that insects were harmful. She gave good reasoning. 6. What points are emphasized in her conclusion? She says that insects will always come and go no matter what, so pesticides would be unnecessary. She also points out the flaw on the agricultural system which makes the vegetation vulnerable to insects. Another main emphasized point is chemical pesticides not only affect the insect, but also it affects us humans. 7. In paragraph 13, Carson uses the metaphor “train of disaster” to describe the impact of pesticides to destroy insects, what does she mean and how is this effective? “Train of disaster” means that it results in one issues causing other issues; it is almost like the domino effect. This is effective because it insinuates that the chemicals in the pesticides not only harm the targeted pests, but that it also affects us. It affects human population and other species. 8. What is one environmental issue that is as serious as the one Carson discusses in her article? What could be the consequences if not addressed? Oil spills in the ocean is another serious issue. If not addressed sooner, wildlife can perish. Millions of fish would die as well as other ocean life resulting in our food market. Not only that but, it can affect our source of water since oil spills are harder to filter than regular dirty water.