"The Soil" And "The People"

The masterpiece of Knut Hamsun---Growth of the Soil helped him win the“Nobel Literature Prize” in1920. This novel reveals the author’s attitude to the natureand his strong concern for human’s future. In his opinion, mankind, being a part of thenature, could only survive on the earth forever if they live harmoniously with the soil.The novel deeply reflects Hamsun’s wish that people could respect the nature andreally love the soil. This thesis, from the perspective of eco-criticism, attempts tostudy the profound ecological ideas in Growth of the Soil.This article is composed of three parts. Introduction part gives a brief depictionto the author, this novel and the critical theory—ecocriticism, and then combines withthe critical reviews of Growth of the Soil at home and abroad to expound on thesignificance of studying this topic.The body part includes three chapters. Chapter one mainly elaborates on thereason that Hamsun forms his ecological conception. There are two main reasons: hislife experience and Norway’s historical and geographical environment. Chapter twoanalyzes the ecological view containing in Growth of the Soil. Comparing people’sdifferent attitudes towards the soil and the distinct following consequences, this thesisaims to reveal the author’s great expectation that human could change their attitudesto the nature. The earth guardians, like Issacs, regard soil as their life, respect thenature wholeheartedly and never leave or abandon it, so they could live happily. Onthe contrary, the earth conquerors ignore soil and even treat the nature as the tool tomake money. As a result, their final end is extremely sad and pitiful. Chapter threemainly discusses the method explored by Hamsun to solve the ecological crisis.Advocated in the early20th century, Hamsun’s ecological ideas such as “Going Backto the Nature, Reverencing For the Life and Harmoniously Coexisting with theNature” are never out of date even until nowadays and are still worth studying.The conclusion part summarizes the whole article and reiterates the main idea ofthe thesis: industrialization, urbanization and commercialization not only seriouslydestroy the balance of ecosystem, but even distort human beings’ virtuous nature. Theright method to save ourselves and the ecology is to eliminate the conception ofhuman centralism and regress to the nature, as well as respect all life’s existence.