On The Ecological Sense In Cormac McCarthy's The Border Trilogy

Cormac Mcarthy is a conscientious writer in contemporary American literary. Sensing the dangers facing modern mankind because of ecological crises ,the great writer writes many great novels to expose the crises first, then he analyzes them and offers his own advice on how to deal with the problems.This thesis is composed of three chapters with introduction and conclusion. In the introduction part Cormac McCarthy's biography and his major novels are briefly introduced. In addition, ecocriticism is briefly introduced. The introduction also reviews the previous studies of Cormac McCarthy's novels at home and abroad and presents the central argument of this thesis.Chapter One analyzes Cormac McCarthy's view on natural ecology reflected in his Border Trilogy. From the three novels readers can sense his worry about the crisis of natural ecology. In these novels Cormac McCarthy not only points out man's violence to the nature, but also its consequences, the vanishing of the nature.Chapter Two deals with Cormac McCarthy's concern for the crisis of social ecology. The thesis points out the connection between the crisis of natural ecology and the crisis of social ecology. After that the thesis devotes to the two kinds of crisis of social ecology-----alienated relationship between family members and violence to others, with texts from his novels to support the argument.Chapter Three points out Cormac McCarthy's solution to tide over the crisis. McCarthy resorts to love for help. The respect and love of the nature is, in his eyes, the best means to establish a harmonious relationship with the natural world. As for a solution to the crisis of social ecology, love is still the best one. Love to others is the best way to achieve harmony between man and man.The conclusion sums up the whole thesis briefly and points out the greatness of Cormac McCarthy. His literary achievement is not only in his depiction of the crisis of natural ecology and that of the crisis of social ecology, but also in his advice on how to deal with the problems.