Pursuing The Lost Paradise

Theoretically based on the newly-developed ecofeminist thoughts, this thesisattempts to analyze Hemingway's most famous novels The Sun Also Rises, AFarewell to Arms and For Whom the Bell Tolls from a combined aspect of gender andnature to dig out ecofeminist consciousness in the works. The analysis suggests that,born in a time when women's role and position were undergoing major changes,Hemingway sensed the gender tensions in the culture and managed to unfold thesecurious changes in his fictional world. Setting the gender tensions in the fiercesthumanconflict——war, Hemingway, in the three novels, challenged the traditionaldividing lines of gender roles and gender qualities, fashioning an ideal harmoniousreciprocity between the sexes and extending such an ideal to the human-nonhumanrelationship, which coincides with the ecofeminist goal of establishing sustainableharmonious society with a new type of man/woman, human/nature relationship basedon care ethics——a paradise on the earth, and can provide ecofeminism withpractical revelation. Through the analysis of the three novels, this research aims togenerate an ecological consciousness that will contribute to the urgent imperatives ofenvironmental protection and present to the public that it is inadequate to solveenvironmental problems only by means of science and technology or governmentdecree. The ultimate resolution to the problems and the goal of establishing asustainable harmonious society depend on the joint efforts of the two sexes fromideology to behavior. That is, by reforming their male identity and developingtraditionally so-called "feminine virtues" to share his responsibility of nurturing, men should and are able to join the ecosystem while women should give the rein to theirpositive role in social and environmental protection activities to contribute to theestablishment of a new type of relationships among the people, between male andfemale, human and non-human nature. Only in this way can it be possible to resolveecological crisis and develop a sustainable harmonious society.