The Roaring Falls

Joyce Carol Oates has long been misunderstood and well recognized in the critical circle for her ruthless anatomy of social violence, her scaring description of blood-shed scenes and her original probe into different styles and genres. Consequently, the traditional critical discourses about Oates are usually confined to the limited critical angles, neglecting her attempts and assimilation of other literary thoughts. Today, with the progress of industrialization, the increase in environmental damages has become a great concern of the whole world. As a writer with a strong sense of responsibility, Oates also shows her care about it and actively transforms her ecological consciousness in her writing. Based on close reading of the novel, this thesis aims to study The Falls (2004) from the ecocritical perspective to throw a new light on the study of Oates and her work by exploring her ecological views revealed in the text.Generally, ecocriticism is concerned with the ways nature is reflected in literary texts. It pays much attention to the connection between man and nature and introspects the position of man in the ecosystem. In ecocriticism, nature refers to the whole ecological circle on the earth and the interrelationships in between. Ecocritics stick to ecological equality and holism, arguing that nature is a living entity with its intrinsic value and all natural objects have their own rights to exist. Reacting against anthropocentrism, ecocritics also question the logic of industrial civilization, which has produced negative iinfluences on the whole ecosystem.The Falls, with the thread of the heroine, Ariah's emotional life, makes a panoramic account of the area of Niagara Falls during 1950s to 1970s. The writer interweaves the fictional story with the real-life environmental scandal occurring in American history, mercilessly exposing the ecological crisis resulted from industrialization and expressing her worry about unbalanced ecology.The first chapter, the introductory part of the thesis, summarizes Oates's literary achievements and the previous studies of The Falls at home and abroad. Meanwhile, studies of Oates's ecological views on the ground of her life and representative works provide the present ecological analysis with broad historical background.The second chapter is devoted to an overview of ecocriticism and the focus of this thesis.The main body of this thesis, Chapter Three, offers a reading of The Falls from the three perspectives: natural ecology, social ecology and spiritual ecology.The first part of Chapter Three analyzes Oates's viewpoints of natural ecology embodied in the novel. According to Oates, nature has been spoiled by the invasion of industrialization, for which humans also have paid great cost. Nature can not be dominated by human beings at will; instead, it has spirits and mysterious force. If man attempts to conquer nature both man and nature will be victimized.In the second part of this chapter, the thesis furtherly explores Oates's concern about social ecology revealed in the novel. In the writing industrial civilization not only destroys beautiful nature, but also ruins humanity and normal human relationships. Industrialization produces commercial-minded people who neglect precious emotions among friends, family members and lovers. Oppression man poses upon nature also leads to the oppression of men upon women and of upper class upon lower class. In political field, orderly social system is replaced by corrupting bureaucracy, which exacerbates environmental problems. However, those policy-makers who enjoy great benefits from industrialization transfer the ecological disasters to the disadvantaged class of the society.The last part interprets the views of spiritual ecology presented in the novel. In modern society, human is alienated from nature, from society and from self, and thus suffers from loneliness and depression for loss of nature. Man's independent thinking and individuality are eroded by modern industrial society, which breeds a group of mechanical men. The novel also shows man's moral deterioration caused by psychological emptiness and imbalance, which is the source of social instability.Chapter Four is a conclusion. The Falls embodies the basic ecological ideas on the relationship between man and nature, between man and man, and between man and self. With an optimistic view about the future Oates realizes the increasing ecological awareness of human's and insists that only when the human race coexist harmoniously with nature can we have possibilities to maintain the harmonious society and integrated self.The Falls shows Oates's penetrating and profound ecological view, which enlightens today's readers who are faced with global crisis of the ecosystem. The ecocritical reading of this novel does not only give us in-depth understanding about the writer and the work but also has a realistic meaning in the 21st century.