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Ben Sheldahl
Pogreba
AP Language
1/3/14
Meere Men? Or be we Bird-Gods?
“A-well-a, bird, bird, bird, b-bird's the word
A-well-a, don't you know about the bird
Well, everybody's talking about the bird
A-well-a, bird, bird, b-bird's the word
A-well-a, bird” These sage words from “The Trashmen” hint at the fragility of the bird species, as well as emphasizing the necessity of birds in not just our physical lives, but our pop culture. In this excerpt from the book Silent Spring, Rachel Carson racks up her score in the using rhetorical devices game in an attempt to convey her heartfelt message of the bird holocaust of 1959, where the farmers (or basically bird Hitlers), sprayed gas and poison all over the innocent woodland creatures. Carson gives background info (paragraph 1) on how the problem of blackbirds came to be, and elaborates on just how simple it would have been to avoid the bird holocaust of 1959. She uses quotation marks when speaking of “eradicating” and “control[ing])” the population of the birds. This shows that she is outraged at the phrasing of others arguments that advocate for bird genocide. She goes on to say that the poison was meant to “control concentrations of birds distasteful to farmers.” “Concentration, as in concentration camps. Carsen uses these subtle hints to shed light on the truth of the bird holocaust of 1969. She goes on to assert that this could all have been avoided by changing their corn into anti bird corn, but that the farmers had adopted a mob mentality about birds and could not be dissuaded. This antithesis strongly shows the conflicting ideas of being a bird killing sheep, or choosing your own path and not condoning the slaughter of thousands of innocent birds. Carson preaches about the massive collateral damages (paragraphs 2 and 3) caused by the poisons, giving examples of animals endangered by the bird holocaust of 1959. She explains the audacity of the farmers actions by claiming the slaughter of over

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