An Approach Of Ecological Ethics To Walden

After a slow start in the early 1990s, ecocriticism has become one of the fastest-growing and promising areas in literary study. This thesis attempts to approach Henry David Thoreau's masterpiece Walden, based on the author's thoughts of ecological ethics.Only with the coming of the global environmental crisis and the rise of various environmental movements did Walden begin to draw critical attention, for thoughts of ecological ethics in it could be a way to arouse people's environmental consciousness. Since its publication, Walden has been studied from diverse perspectives, which mainly focus on the elements of oriental philosophy, the author's ideas on nature, his writing style, etc.. A detailed and comparatively profound ecological and ethical analysis on it is rarely seen.This thesis consists of five parts. Chapter One makes a critical review of Thoreau and Walden at home and abroad, and briefly introduces the overall structure of this thesis. Chapter Two gives an introduction to the background and developing process of ecological ethics, and focuses on the sources of Thoreau's ecological thoughts from several aspects including his hometown Concord, his great mentor Emerson, American Indian culture, and Christian tradition. Chapter Three aims to analyze Thoreau's thoughts in Walden about the relationship between man and nature, especially his views on fishing and hunting, which prove so attractive to ecological ethics; and his principle of simple life is just the criticism of the American living style of materialism. Chapter Four is concerned with the literary and social significance of Thoreau's ecological ethics in Walden and how to solve the defective factors between ideal and reality. Finally, the last chapter points out that Thoreau's ideas about life are of great significance to the world trudging in the serious ecological crisis. Thoreau has left a great legacy to the world. His ideas about life not only predict the arrival of today's ecological crisis, but also point out the direction in which people should take in the future. What we should learn from Thoreau is his insight and the essence of his philosophy, but not the superficial imitation of his life style.