Rachel Carson (1907-1964) was an American marine biologist, who played a key role in laying the foundations of the modern environmental movement. She published 'The Silent Spring (1962) that described the ill effects of chemical pesticides like DDT (Dichloro Diphenyl Trichloroethane) that was available in America for widespread agricultural use in 1945. 'A fable for Tomorrow' is the opening chapter of 'The Silent Spring' where she blends fiction and reality and describes a fictional town teeming with life. She also narrates how the town decayed for its indiscriminate pesticide use.
In 'A fable for
Tomorrow' an American town that lay in the midst of a checkerboard of
prosperous farms and hillsides of orchards is pictured. In Spring white clouds
of bloom drifted above the green fields. In Autumn, oak and maple and birch set
up a blaze of colour. Even in winter the road sides were filled with countless
birds that fed berries and dried weeds rising above the snow. The tourists from great distances came to
enjoy the beauty and to fish the streams.
At the course of time, suddenly a
strange blight crept over the area and everything began to change. Everywhere was a shadow of death. The chickens, the cattle and sheep sickened and died. Doctors were puzzled to see new kinds of
sickness appearing among their patients. A white granular powder fell like snow
upon the roofs and the lawns, the fields and streams.
Actually, the season
for the strange stillness was not a witchcraft, not an enemy action but the
people themselves had done it. Rachel Carson also says that the town doesn't
exist but has a thousand counter parts in America or elsewhere in the world. Thus, she begins her 'The Silent Spring' that
explains the causes that made the spring silent. Here she makes us think about
the effects of pollution and the impending consequences of the unchecked human
intervention in the form of pesticide use.
She questions the ethics of domination over nature and appeals the people
to live and let live the nature with their sustainable practices.
------Thulasidharan V
No comments:
Post a Comment