The Song Of Solomon From The Perspective Of Environmental Justice Ecological Criticism

Toni Morrison(1931-)is one of the most influential African-American woman writers in contemporary America.The cross-ethnic identity and unique experience provide abundant raw materials for her creation.Her works mainly focus on social issues such as racial oppression,gender discrimination,class conflicts and the history and destiny of the black people.Song of Solomon(1977)is one of the most representative works in her eleven novels.As soon as the work was published,it attracted wide attention from academic circles at home and abroad.Up to now,most scholars at home and abroad have studied the work from its theme,ideological content,artistic features,black self-pursuit and cultural identity while a few scholars have interpreted the work from the ecological perspective,but few have discussed it from the perspective of environmental justice.Therefore,this paper attempts to use the theory of ecological criticism of environmental justice to analyze the environmental crisis in the novel from the perspective of environmental justice,so as to reveal the importance of " environmental justice" and the ecological ideas contained in Morrison’s works.This article is divided into three parts: introduction,body and conclusion.The first part is introduction.This part first introduces Toni Morrison and her Song of Solomon,then reviews the relevant studies on Song of Solomon by scholars at home and abroad and finally briefly discusses the research methods and the theory of environmental justice and ecological criticism.The second part is the main part,including three chapters.The first chapter reveals the impact of environmental crisis on minority blacks by analyzing the intrinsic relationship between the destruction of natural environment,the injustice of urban environment,the distortion of human environment and the tragic fate of blacks,and highlights the importance ofenvironmental justice.The second chapter analyzes the historical and cultural roots of African-Americans’ environmental injustice in the novel,specifically,including the destruction of the environment under the guidance of anthropocentrism,racial discrimination by European and American whites against African-Americans,and the erosion of the values of minority blacks by capitalist outlook on money supremacy and wealth.The third chapter of the main part takes the awakening and struggle of the Milkman and the redemption of black woman Pilat as examples to analyze the way to resolve the environmental crisis in Song of Solomon,identifying the black’s cultural identity,returning to the black’s cultural tradition,rebuilding the black’s spiritual home,and enhancing the black’s self-esteem,self-confidence and pride.On the basis of summarizing the previous articles,the conclusion part calls on us to pay more attention to the ecological environment and actively seek solutions to solve the environmental crisis.Only when environmental crisis is resolved and environmental justice is ensured can people finally build a harmonious,just and sustainable world.