An Ecocritical Interpretation Of The Country Of The Pointed Firs

Sarah Orne Jewett is one of the best-loved authors in America.Her reputation mostly rests on her depiction of regional characteristics in South Berwick,Maine and nearby areas,and had been firmly established since the publication of her masterpiece The Country of the Pointed Firs.Her fictions have always been appealing for their vivid portrait of women characters and natural landscape of rural areas.With more and more the focus on environmental issues,her masterpiece The Country of the Pointed Firs starts to enjoy a rising popularity among researchers.It has been interpreted mainly from such aspects as realism,regionalism,racism,feminism and cultural studies,with ecological studies still inadequate.Though not a novelist of ecocriticism in the strict sense,ecological ideas penetrate throughout Jewett's novels.This thesis intends to interpret The Country of the Pointed Firs from the perspective of ecocriticism so as to reveal the ecological ideas reflected in the novel and shed a new light on it.By providing a detailed analysis of natural ecology,social ecology and spiritual ecology in it,the thesis reveals Jewett's concern and ideas on environmental issues.It is of vital importance to reread The Country of the Pointed Firs from the perspective of ecocriticism.On one hand,we may find something useful for the settlement of environmental crisis,social crisis and spiritual crisis.On the other hand,this practice can provide a new evaluation on Sarah Orne Jewett.