An Ecological Analysis Of "the Border Trilogy"

Cormac McCarthy is an outstanding contemporary American writer. His works focus on the life of themiddle and lower classes along the border between America and Mexico. They are welcomed by readers andpraised by critics. McCarthy’s novels about the western regions, represented by the Border Trilogy and BloodMeridian, establish his status in American literature. The Border Trilogy, consisting of All the Pretty Horse, TheCrossing and Cities of the Plain, is set in cities along the border between America and Mexico around WorldWar Ⅱ when the characters go through a transformation from the age of husbandry to the era of industrialism.The changes of people’s lives and nature after the transformation lead to the unharmonious relationship withman and nature, and even the relationship among human beings is no longer intimate. Thus, the ecological crisisbecomes more and more serious.Ecocriticism, as a literary criticism, emerged with the problem of environmental destruction increasing andthe ecological crisis worsening, probes into the relationship between literature and nature. Because of theincreasing seriousness of environmental pollution and the development of ecocriticism in recent years, it ispractically significant to reread the classics from the perspective of ecocriticism and adjust the relationshipbetween man and nature. Based on the tripartite division of Ecology (that is the division of ecology into naturalecology, social ecology and spiritual ecology) put forward by the famous ecocritic Lu Shuyuan, the thesisattempts to explore the ecological implications of McCarthy’s Border Trilogy. It mainly analyzes therelationships between man and nature, man and man, and man and himself, and reveals McCarthy’sphilosophical thought about the harmony between man and nature, society and his spirit.This thesis is composed of five chapters.The first chapter is a brief introduction to the life and literary career of Cormac McCarthy, and the purposeand significance of the thesis. The layout of the thesis is provided at the end of this chapter as well.The second chapter reviews the previous studies of Cormac McCarthy’s novels at home and abroad.The third chapter presents the development and main ideas of ecocriticism, the theoretical framework ofthis thesis.The forth chapter analyzes the ecological ideas in McCarthy’s Border Trilogy from the perspective of natureecology, social ecology and spiritual ecology. The first part of this chapter analyzes Cormac McCarthy’sviewpoint on the harmonious relationship between man and nature. It falls into three aspects: the magnificent but worrying nature, the anthem-worthy relationship between man and horses, and the pitiable but respectablerelationship between man and wolves. From these three novels readers can get to know that McCarthy worriesabout the crisis of the relationship between man and nature. Part two deals with the striking contrast betweenconflicting relationship between man and society and the harmonious relationship among people. The former isreflected in the shock brought about by industrial civilization, violence and the estrangement of family members.The connection between the natural ecology crisis and the social ecology crisis is also pointed out. The last partdiscusses Cormac McCarthy’s idea about the spiritual crisis through the sharp contrast between distorted humanmentality and the spiritual growth of the two protagonists John Grady and Billy Parham. McCarthy appeals topeople to pay close attention to the harmony of spiritual ecology, which will further promote the reestablishmentof the harmonious relationship between man and nature and between man and man. At the same time，theestablishment of a harmonious relationship with the natural world and society is conducive to the resolution oftheir spiritual crisis by returning to nature.The last chapter is the conclusion, which sums up Cormac McCarthy’s ecological ideas embodies in theBorder Trilogy and restates the significance of the thesis. In his opinion, the best way for human beings toestablish a harmonious relationship with the natural world to resolve natural ecological crisis is to respect andlove nature. And love is also the best way to solve social ecological crisis and spiritual crisis to achieve aharmonious state both between man and society and man and himself. So human beings should love nature andothers. Meanwhile, they should love themselves as well in order to solve spiritual ecological crisis.