Dismantling Opposition And Constructing Harmony

As one of the most well-known masterpieces of American famous writer Pearl S. Buck, The House of Earth has been studied from various perspectives at home and abroad. This thesis attempts to adopt ecofeminist critical theory to explore the relationships between man and nature, male and female in the novel. Originating in the 1960s and further developing in the 1990s, ecofeminism, for the first time, combines women and nature together to criticize literary works or writers from dual perspectives of nature and women. Here the "marginalized" and "otherized" women and nature come to be "present" instead of "being absent". Therefore, compared with the pure ecocriticism or radical feminism, ecofeminism has made much progress. Ecofeminism firstly is "ecological", putting emphasis on the whole ecology. That is both man and nature are the necessary part of the whole ecological system and they should have equal positions. Moreover, environmental protection should become part of human's daily activity. Ecofeminism secondly is "feminine", reestablishing behavior principles and social policies based upon a foundation without male bias. By analyzing and studying literary works, ecofeminism attempts to re-criticize the whole human culture, to change the" marginalized" and "otherized" position of nature and women, to awake people's awareness of environmental protection and equality between genders, and finally to construct a harmonious society without racism, classism and other forms of oppression.The thesis tries to disclose the ecofeminist ideology contained in The House of Earth from three chapters. The first chapter mainly focuses on how the human-land relationship goes from good in the first generation of Wang's family to bad in the second generation governed by Anthropocentrism. As the representative of the first generation, Wang lung keeps a close tie to land while by comparison, his three sons regard land as the tool for making money. Here, Anthropocentrism turns into the object of criticism.The second chapter mainly discusses that women are imprisoned in the circle of "other" governed by patriarchy. From marrying several wives to conducting infanticide then to strong heirs concept, males undoubtedly bring great harm to females. In the novel, women have natural infinity with nature, the fate of both are manipulated by the male-dominant society. As the female representatives of the old society, O-lan, Lotus and Pear Blossom all can't flee from the chains of patriarchy. Here, the attacking target is patriarchy.The third chapter, as the sublimation part of the thesis, concentrates on the construction of harmony between man and women, human and nature. After three generations lasting for more than a century, Wang's family re-find and re-cherish their root linked to land in the third generation while for females in the novel, their equality to males is gradually achieved in the third generation. At the end of the novel, Pearl Buck presents a harmonious scene to the readers where human live in peace with nature and men live in equal coexistence with women, which is also in echo with the highest goal of ecofeminism.In summary, the thesis aims to dismantle the opposition between human and nature, male and female, and construct harmony. Meanwhile, the author of this thesis wishes to provide a fresh perspective to Pearl Buck's study and add a new case to ecofeminism.