On The Ecological Ethics In American Children's Literature

Along with the increasingly ecological environmental problems, the relationship between human beings and nature are rather strained at present. Facing the world in which we live, we wonder where human beings go from here. Ecological ethics, an interdisciplinary study of ecology and ethics, explores the human'ethical duties for nature. Children are the future of the country and the society. Since literature can exercise a dramatic influence over children's mind during their growth, how to take advantage of literature and adopt the appropriate methods to help them grow up healthily concerns the future of a nation. It is of momentous current significance and far-reaching historical significance to help children acquire correct ecological ethics by making the best use of the instruction function of children's literature.To meet the serious challenge of the ecological crisis and the predicament of human survival, children's literature writers and researchers should shoulder the responsibility of finding a natural unity of their works and the correct ecological ethics. This thesis will focus on analyzing the important status and roles of ecological ethics in American children's literature, thus opening a new horizon for the development of children's literature.From the view of the classification of literature, children's literature belongs to an independent catalog, which is written by the adults and for readers up to about age twelve. It is a kind of special literature which is totally different from adult literature. As a kind of important elements, ecological thoughts and natural imageries have always been highlighted in the works through the evolution of American children's literature. There are many American children'literature works whose themes focus on exploring the relationship between man and nature, which shows that the westerners stress the importance of the concept of preserving the ecological environment in their children's literature works. Here the author selects three classic works in American children's literature as research objects—The Yearling, The Old Man and the Sea, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and makes an analysis of the ecological ethics reflected in these three works.This thesis can be divided into six parts.The first part is introduction. This part will introduce the theoretical basis of the study and the American children's literature study and its present status. The purpose, as well as the historic and practical significance of the study, is also pointed out in this part.Chapter one will give a brief introduction to the theoretical basis—ecocriticism and ecological ethics, which are widely used in literary studies at present. Ecocriticism, as a kind of literary critical approach, one of its purposes is to help people acquire correct view of ecological ethics.Chapter two will put its emphasis on the analysis of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings'masterpiece, The Yearling, with the purpose of finding out the important role of nature'effect in children's life experience. The ecological ethics in this novel are classified into three categories, guided by which little Jody formed his own ecological view and which also enlightens young readers.Chapter three will lay its importance on analyzing the relationships between human and nature in Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea to reveal the close relationship between nature and man. As a member of the nature, man should follow the laws of nature. It is of great significance to guide the children to return to nature and follow the rules of nature by literature. And it also shows the importance of returning to nature and following nature.Chapter four analyzes Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of ecological ethics. By depicting the little boy's drifting life on the raft, children are to be instructed to form an ecological view of loving the nature, longing for a simple and free life, objecting unlimited expansion of humankind's desire.The last part, as the conclusion, summarizes the ecological consciousness implied in the American children's literature works, classifies the imageries of nature in these works into three categories and points out the significances for the formation of children's ecological view. It is necessary and urgent for the scholars to make the best use of the guiding function of children's literature, guide them with literature works, teach them in nature, and help them to form the right ecological view. Only in this way can children grow up healthily and the relationship between man and nature be harmonized.