An Ecocritical Study On E.B.white's Children's Books

As a new criticism tidal current , the ecology criticism began in the US with the background of complex society, academic and the philosophy : the direct cause the ecology criticism appeared was the present serious ecological crisis day by day and the ecology movement development, the academic background to the ecology criticism was to correct the traditional literary critical theories which avoided the realistic ecological crisis, the ideological foundation to the ecology criticism was the development and mature of the ecology philosophy . Because the 20th century was an ecological crisis one .During it people brought their own ecological disaster when they created a better life : ecological crisis, social and ecological crisis, ecological crisis of the spirit , cultural and ecological crisis, destruction of the forest, pollution, species, degradation, loss of spirit , moral decay, mental imbalance, and so on .These were a big ecological catastrophe to the existence field of human beings.White made the small animal or the person , such as Stuart Little , being like animal as the hero . These heroes had the same experiences, the same"birth"different from the others, kind-hearted innocence, but unfortunate, they all wanted to intergrade into the world which belong them originally. The problems they faced were to get the method to adapt to the ordinary world for the others, or they could not live their normal lives with the best possible way. The heroes, description of landscape ,language and its images in White's three children's novels expressed his internal harmony in his mind hidden behind his subconscious level , and embodied White's deep love to the natural aesthetic beauty that all kinds of creatures depended on the mutual assistances and blended with one another . These heroes in White's novels, whether in the human world or in the animal world, lived happily because there were no the supreme masters in their world. Moreover, the heroes blended them with each other and obtained the opportunity to become the center of his world: through their own efforts or the helps from the others to be successful or a hero. These above were the true reflection and the successful practice of non-human centrism in the context of the novel. So this made these child novels of White have much implication. On the one hand, three white's children fictions did embody the principle of ecological aesthetics of ecological literature, such as natural aesthetics, universal aesthetics and the aesthetics of engagement. On the other hand, these three children fictions used some eco-writing techniques ,such as to interpret the ecological ethics—reverence the lives and respect nature, to praise the ecological harmonious status—blend with nature and be engagement to nature and to pursuit for the harmonious ideal—concern about human beings and nature .