Analysis
Rachel Carson wrote The Sea Around Us as a kind of paean to the ocean and as a way to explain the complexity of the ocean to non-scientists. Published in 1951, The Sea Around Us was written before the modern environmental movement had really taken hold. Carson, who worked for the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries, wrote the book with poetry and science, and she intended to spark in her readers a sense of the fragility of the world's ecosystem.
Much of Carson's writing is poetic in nature. For example, she writes about the ocean, "Crossed by colors, lights, and moving shadows, sparkling in the sun, mysterious in the twilight, its aspects and moods vary hour by hour." While her writing is based in science, it is also intended to sound like poetry. For example, in the excerpt above from chapter 3, Carson uses poetic devices such as alliteration (starting the words "sparkling" and "sun" with the same sounds) and repetition (repeating the word "hour"). Her words, especially those beginning with "s," also imitate the sounds of the waves on the shore and rushing in of the tide.
Carson approaches the sea in a way that makes it accessible to laypeople, not just scientists. She begins the book with the story of the sea's birth, almost personifying it. She then delves into the different layers of the sea. Her subject becomes approachable in the way she plumbs its depths for the reader. She explains each part of the ocean separately and takes apart its layers for the reader.
The author also emphasizes the interconnectedness not only of the different parts of the sea but also of all life. For example, in Chapter 3, she writes, "The surface waters move with the tides, stir to the breath of the winds, and rise and fall to the endless, hurrying forms of the waves." This sentence is poetic but also contains the idea that all of life is interconnected, and that even the surface of the ocean, which can seem placid, is subject to the deeper movements of the waves and tides. Carson emphasizes the way in which all living things in the environment are connected and the importance of protecting each part of the environment because the environment is composed of a delicate interplay of forces.
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