Compare Daniel Quinn`s Ismael and Rachel Carson`s Silent Spring

A Comparison of Daniel Quinn 's Ishmael and Rachel Carson 's Silent Spring

The works of both Rachel Carson and Daniel Quinn make us take a second look at everyday events that we usually take for granted , at the harm that almost always goes unnoticed . Both authors question the validity of the implicit human claim that the earth belongs to us and that we must advance ' ourselves no matter what the cost

Quinn 's Ishmael is a story that effectively uses an non-aggressive tone to convince the reader . The reader is invited to

explore the situation together with the narrator , step by step , without forcing the reader to a conclusion . While still relying on facts (as presented in Ishmael 's accounts of man 's history , the argument is presented in such a way that the reader becomes initially skeptical , and is therefore all the more convinced when Ishmael voices his all too valid arguments . It does not have much of a plot - mostly conversation , but interesting conversation at that

Quinn 's use of a gorilla as the teacher makes the character all the more effective . Ishmael was one of the victims of man 's cruelty and blindness , and was never a perpetrator . Because Ishmael is not human , he is free from the flaws that made him need to save the earth in the first place , and therefore can criticize man 's actions without hypocrisy

Quinn uses an artistic , unaggressive approach to the problem of convincing the reader that mankind 's mentality wants change . The goal is stated in such simplicity : it 's How to save the world

Silent spring , on the other hand , is about facts (and Carson 's opinions . Carson uses a matter-of-fact , assertive technique , and uses very effective examples (such as the death of the salmon and the robins and the accumulation of the harmful chemicals in human and animal tissue ) to persuade the reader

What Carson and Quinn have in common is that they both want to show us how to save the world from ourselves . Both authors are basically concerned with the current plight of humanity

Quinn argues that we can find ways to live with the earth and not just on it . Quinn (as Ishmael ) argues that we must get outside the Taker culture ' mentality (which we consider the civilized ' way

The Taker mentality is a human-centric , or anthropocentric , view , in which the earth belongs to man and where we are free to do anything we want with it "which casts mankind as the enemy of the world

The Taker mentality is so ingrained in us that we are no longer aware of it - it is simply an assumption , taken for granted about the world it is already inherent in everything we do and how we interact . As Ishmael says "The mythology of your culture hums in your ears so constantly that no one pays the slightest bit of attention to it

According to Quinn , part of the problem is that a Taker culture views...