The Role of Literature in Shaping Environmental Consciousness: A Study of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring.

Rachel Carson's (1962) Silent Spring shaped environmental consciousness and started a new movement to save nature. Carson played a significant role in bringing forth the dangerous effects of fertilisers and pesticides on the environment. The movement by Carson highlighted and informed the public about how these pesticides harm the living organisms. Although she faced several challenges and threats from the chemical industries and faced the controversies, yet she kept fighting the preservation until the excessive use of fertilisers was banned. It is through her book Silent Spring that Carson accomplished it all. In the genre, the book combines field study and literary writing. The present paper explores the role of literature in raising people's awareness about the environment; the issue that is of utmost importance today. From being an environmentalist to a storyteller, Carson's writing style influenced people to work for the preservation of environment and still doing the same. The paper discusses how the book which was penned down in the twentieth century inspires readers in the present times as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]