Alienation And Return: The Torrents Of Spring And The Old Man And The Sea From Ecocritical Perspective

Ernest Hemingway is a great writer of the 20th century, the spokesman of"the lost generation". His legendary lifestyle and unique writing style have been the focus of many people's attention since his lifetime. His works have been studied from various perspectives, such as racism, feminism and postcolonialism. After the emergence of ecocriticism, scholars began to explore his outlook on nature. The human-nature relationship conveyed in his works has drawn more and more attention of ecocritics around the world. The studies on his works from ecocritical perspective can provide new insights into Hemingway the man and his works, promote our reconsideration of human-nature relationship, correct man's anthropocentric attitude towards nature, and help us reestablish harmony between man and nature as well as harmony between man and man.Hemingway can be regarded as a son of nature. His upbringing in nature, his parents'early education, his personal experience in nature and his close contact with nature—all these factors have direct influences on the formation of his nature outlook. For him, nature is not only useful, but also peaceful and holy. He compliments its beauty and greatness, sympathizes with the spoilt nature, and satirizes man's arrogance and conceitedness.At the early stage of his writing, Hemingway describes many alienated characters. They are alienated from nature, furtherly, alienated from society (others), and alienated from self. These people have lost their close relatedness with nature, lack genuine spiritual communication and live in vanity and despair. Natural environmental crisis, social crisis and spiritual crisis oppress them so much that they are overcome by deep depression.When exposing man's alienation, Hemingway also probes into the root of it. He thinks that it is war and mechanized production or modern technology that have destroyed nature's beauty, engendered all the problems in modern society, and increased the conflicts between man and nature, between man and man, and between man and self. He has been searching for a solution to man's alienation. In his opinion, return to nature is the best way to overcome man's alienation. The consciousness of return to nature begins to burgeon in his first novella The Torrents of Spring and reaches its maturity in his masterpiece The Old Man and the Sea. Hemingway's protagonists, Santiago and Manolin, return to nature spontaneously, and through different ways: return to a simple, natural lifestyle, return to a harmonious interpersonal relationship, return to traditional old values and return to self's identification with nature to approve man's affinity for natural forms. Their return to nature and integration into nature has set an example for us. There is no doubt that studying Hemingway's two novellas from ecocritical perspective, exploring their characters'alienation and the solution to alienation, return to nature, contributes to our deep and comprehensive understanding of Hemingway the man and his works. In addition, it can awaken our ecological consciousness and encourage us to take part in environmental protection movement.