An Ecocritical Study Of Winesburg, Ohio

Sherwood Anderson (1876--1941) is a very peculiar writer in modern American literary history. In his whole creative life, Anderson composed seven novels, five collections of short stories and three personal narratives. Based on the current literary studies, some scholars argued that none of these works could ever touch Winesburg, Ohio either in depth of vision or in literary craft. Recent years the current literary criticism flourished this work, but until now, nobody has analyzed Winesburg, Ohio from the perspective of ecocriticism.All the twenty-five stories in Winesburg, Ohio are all set in a small Midwest American town in the transitional and transformed period, the late nineteenth and the early of the twentieth century. This period is a transformation from the age of agrarian handicraft industry to the era of industrialism. Due to the rapid industrial development, nature was over-exploited and natural resources were wasted. The nature of man was twisted; therefore, the isolated and repressed life resulted in the small town inhabitants' absence of love and the hindrance of communication. Sherwood Anderson keenly caught the gist of the time so that he truly depicted the influence of the changes of their lifestyle on the psyche of these small town inhabitants. As to the relationship between man and nature at the era of ecological crisis, coexistence or extinction is an indispensable question to answer. Therefore, ecocriticism provides us a new horizon to explore the ecological consciousness implied in Winesburg, Ohio.This thesis focuses on how to achieve a harmonious co-existence between man and nature as well as man and man. To begin with, this thesis presents us an unharmonious ecological picture between man and nature through the description of the pervasiveness of anthropocentrism and the absence of ecological holism. However, the crisis of ecology should also be extended to the unharmonious relationship between man and man. Therefore, this thesis further explores the crises of natural, social and spiritual ecology in Winesburg, Ohio. Or rather, the crisis of natural ecology is represented by sexual repression and indulgence. The crisis of social ecology is embodied in the unhappy marriage. And the crisis of spiritual ecology is reflected by the absence of love. The aim is to tell the readers that ecological crisis is indeed the crisis of the nature of man. Kindness is the way to co-exist harmoniously with nature. In this case, the accomplishment of ecological holism will not be a dream in the future.This thesis is composed of five chapters. Introduction part is the introduction to Sherwood Anderson and his works and the layout of this thesis.The first chapter is the literature review on Sherwood Anderson and Winesburg, Ohio abroad and at home and the introduction to ecocriticism.The second chapter discusses the pervasiveness of anthropocentrism in Winesburg, Ohio. Christianity planted the anthropocentric seed into people's mind. Therefore, Jesse Bentley destroyed and over-exploited nature for the sake of serving God. Under the influence of industrialism, a great quantity of natural resources was wasted. They cut down trees to print the hollow letters and papers and constructed excessive transportation vehicles.The third chapter analyzes the grotesques'absence from Ecological Holism. Some of the grotesques always reflected on the beauty of nature and realized the solace function of nature.The fourth chapter reveals us the ecological crises of nature, society and spirit. The abnormal sexual phenomenon, the unhappy marriage and the absence of love unfolds us an unharmonious picture between man and nature, and man and man. To solve the problem, we need to be kind to other people and other entities in nature. Harmony between man and nature can finally be achieved by love and sympathy.The fifth chapter is the conclusion part. The conclusion is that anthropocentrism is the way to extinct, whereas ecological holism the way to survive. The crisis ecology is the crisis of man. Kindness is the way to co-exist harmoniously with nature.