An international famous biologist and
conservationist, Rachel Carson is known for her writings on the beauty of life,
especially those living in the deep and inscrutable ocean. The Marginal World is another one of Rachel Carson’s beautiful
work, fully exploring the beauty of organism that survive between the line of
land and sea, the beauty of the edge of the sea.
First published in The New Yorker, the Marginal World is a universal and interesting
read for American audiences. Every person has a place in their heart for the
caring of nature and of the environment which they live in, and Carson
masterfully explores this tender spot, appealing to the Americans, and
gradually to the world, of the importance of conservation and the unsurpassable
grace of life.
Carson in her short essay primary relies
upon ethereal imagery and a magical tone to convey to the audience of the
remarkable nature seen through her eyes. In portraying the diversity and
vitality of life on the seashore, Carson repeatedly uses anaphora, saying “life
descends into fissures and crevices; life tunnels into solid rock and bores
into peat and clay; life encrusts weeds and drifting spars; life exists
minutely, as spheres of protozoa and small as pinpricks” (Oates 215). In
reminiscence of her meeting with the star fish, Carson was very specific with
her description, reflecting how “ a little star fish hung down by the merest thread;
it reached down to touch its own reflection, so perfectly delineated” (Oates
216). The specific scenes of life majestically portrayed by Carson and her
repeated emphasis upon “life” all gave her imageries an additional
convincingness. The imageries Carson portrayed can give the readers nothing but
awe toward nature.
Alongside Carson’s exquisite imageries of
nature was the almost magical tone she used for her description, adding to the
wonderful scenery of life. Carson included herself in her portrayal of nature,
describing one scene as “ I look for the most delicately beautiful o fall the
shore’s inhabitants, flowers blooming on the threshold of the deeper sea” and
another as : I was filled with awareness that although abandoned briefly by the
sea, the area is always reclaimed by rising tide”(Oates 216). The first person
narration and the ethereal surroundings of “blooming flowers and “rising tide” gave
the description an extraordinary feel, as if Carson, with nature has trespassed
the mundane, and stepped into a place with much more perfection.
Nature is truly beautiful.
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