An Analysis Of A House For Mr.Biswas From The Perspective Of Ecocriticism

Born in Trinidad,British Indian writer V.S Naipaul is a famous contemporary post-colonial writer.Most of his works are set in Asia,Africa,Latin America and other third world societies,expressing his sharp criticism of the world and his deep thinking on life.Naipaul's early masterpiece,A House for Mr.Biswas,is modeled on his father.It tells a story of Mr.Biswas' s pursuit for independence and a house of his own and shows the natural environment,social environment and cultural conditions of Trinidad to the world.Ecocriticism uses the direction of ecological science for reference and absorbs the basic ideas of ecology,such as holistic view,correlative view and harmonious view.It emphasizes the overall interest of ecosystem and takes it as the highest value.The main mission of ecocriticism is to analyze the phenomena in human society and human culture so as to explore the ideological and cultural roots of ecological crisis.The domestic and foreign scholars have analyzed the novel from the perspectives of post-colonialism,narrative strategies and language styles,but only a few critics analyze the novel from the perspective of ecocriticism.On the basis of domestic and foreign research,this thesis attempts to interpret the natural ecology,social ecology and spiritual ecology in A House for Mr.Biswas through Lu Shuyuan's three points of ecocriticism.It analyzes the destruction of natural environment in Trinidad,the disharmonious relationship between man and man and the spiritual dilemma of Indian immigrants.This thesis consists of three parts: introduction,main body and conclusion.The main contents are as follows:The first part is introduction.This part expounds current research status of V.S Naipaul and his works at home and abroad comprehensively and explains the innovation of the study and its research significance.The second part is main body,which is divided into four chapters.The first chapter explains the theoretical foundation of the thesis.Firstly,this chapter analyzes the background,the origin and development of ecocriticism.Ecocriticism comes into being under the background of the times when the global ecological problems are becoming more and more serious and it gradually matures under the exploration and research of scholars at home and abroad.Then,it analyzes the basic connotation of ecocriticism and explains the meanings of natural ecology,social ecology and spiritual ecology.The second chapter analyzes the natural ecology in A House for Mr.Biswas.Firstly,it illustrates the harmonious relationship between man and nature in Trinidad.Secondly,it analyzes the embodiment of natural ecological imbalance in Trinidad on animals,plants and the living environment of human beings in the process that the industrialization advances and human desires increase continuously.Finally,the second chapter shows a series of negative effects of the destroyed nature on the Tulsis.The third chapter analyzes the social ecology in A House for Mr.Biswas.Firstly,starting from the hierarchical system followed by Indian immigrants in the novel,this chapter analyzes the control of man over man in society and its impacts on the current ecological crisis.Secondly,by the analysis of the contradictions and conflicts between main characters in the novel,it reflects the disharmonious interpersonal relationships between family members.Finally,by analyzing the contradictions between different groups,this chapter reveals the conflicts between different races under Trinidad's complex social background,which shows the imbalance of social ecology.The fourth chapter analyzes the spiritual ecology in A House for Mr.Biswas.Firstly,it explains the dilemma in the cultural aspect faced by Indian immigrants in the novel.And then,through the analysis of the loss of identity of the protagonist,Mr.Biswas,it shows his spiritual insanity and imbalance.Finally,this chapter discusses all kinds of efforts made by Mr.Biswas to pursue his independent identity.The third part is conclusion that briefly summarizes the main contents of the thesis and draws a conclusion.By using the theory of ecocriticism to analyze the imbalance in nature,society and spirit in A House for Mr.Biswas,this thesis sums up the realistic significance of ecocriticism in dealing with current ecological crisis,and in the end,the deficiency of this thesis is pointed out.