An Eco-critical Reading Of The Grapes Of Wrath

John Ernest Steinbeck is considered to be one of the best-known American novelists of the 20th Century. He won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1962 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964. His most famous work The Grapes of Wrath, published in 1939, is an epic chronicle during the Great Depression of the United States in 1930s. In 1940, the novel was awarded the Pulitzer Prize and adapted to the screen. This novel has shown the scene of the American people's struggling and resisting for their lives through the writer's profound and true-life writing. After this novel had been published, it aroused the panic of the ruling classes from all the states. It was forbidden to be published in some states. They thought some characters in the novel uglified local people's images, but nothing could shake its important position in the contemporary literature history in America. Most of the readers have set a high value on this novel. Many scholars have made extensive and deep research on it from different angles. The scholars generally think The Grapes of Wrath is a social critical novel with great influence. Its research is mostly on theme, biblical symbols, style and so on. Nevertheless, the people begin to review and reinterpret Steinbeck and his novels from the perspective of eco-criticism since the eco-criticism came out in the last century. This thesis attempts to study The Grapes of Wrath from three perspectives, namely, Natural Ecology, Social Ecology and Spiritual Ecology, and explores Steinbeck's ecological consciousness. It is hoped that this thesis will be beneficial for further study of The Grapes of Wrath.First of all, this thesis discusses natural ecological view shown in The Grapes of Wrath. In the novel, the author describes the ecological disaster on the Great Plain in the south of America in 1930s, which shows his worry about ecological crisis and severe condemnation on people's upsetting destructive behaviors. The author states that ecological crisis is due to human modern civilization. He thinks human progress destroys nature, breaches the harmony between man and nature. What's more, the description of the farmers'love for the land in the novel shows that Steinbeck has keen affection for his own land, and pursues for harmonious natural ecology.Human modern civilization not only destories the beautiful nature, but also causes the hierarchical differentiation of society and thus alienates the relationship between man and man. With the development of capitalist industrial civilization, class distinction becomes more and more obvious. In order to pursue profit maximization, people become greedy and selfish, the relationship between man and man becomes indifferent and cruel. As a writer, who is full of ecological idea, Steinbeck advocates our society should be harmonious and peaceful like the nature. The sublimed theme of novel, namely from"I"to"we", embodies his ecological holism, i.e."group-man theory". Steinbeck thinks that the human society should be a unit without hierarchy. He hopes the people love and help each other like the migrants in the communities and always believes that humans find their greatest strength in numbers. Through analyzing the sublimed theme of novel and"group-man"theory, this thesis explores Steinbeck's expectation on harmonious Social Ecology.The changes of man-and-nature relationship and man-and-man relationship harm nature, harm the society and also hurt the human spirit. In The Grapes of Wrath, the imbalance of Natural Ecology and Social Ecology and the damage of Spiritual Ecology develop simultaneously. Steinbeck exposes the imbalance of human spirit through describing the characters'distorted spirit and expresses his hope for harmonious Spirital Ecology through praising the great soul.This thesis takes on a further research from the perspective of eco-criticism by analyzing Natural Ecology, Social Ecology and Spiritual Ecology in the novel. From the research, we can understand Steinbeck's advanced ecological awareness. Through the analysis, the author finds The Grapes of Wrath is a great work full of ecological ideas.