Silent Spring

These prompts can be used for in-class discussion, exploratory free-writing, or reflection homework before or after reading the book.

Pre-Reading Personal Response

One of the arguments that Rachel Carson makes throughout Silent Spring is that humans are too often lured by promises of “quick fixes,” rather than taking the time and effort to research and implement more effective and less damaging alternatives. What are some examples in your life in which you or people around you have tried to use a “quick fix” to solve some problem or challenge? What was the outcome of using the “quick fix”? If the decision could be made again, what would you, or recommend others, do differently?

Teaching Suggestion: Carson discusses “quick fixes” using cancer as an example in Chapter 14. This is a particularly poignant example because Carson died of breast cancer only 18 months after Silent Spring was published. Connect this prompt to other examples of the Search for a Quick Fix theme in the book.

Post-Reading Analysis

Rachel Carson was among the relatively few women in science-related fields during the 1930s through the 1960s, having spent a large portion of her professional life as a marine biologist with the US Fish and Wildlife Service.