On The Land And Women In A Thousand Acres From The Perspective Of The Land Ethic

Jane Smiley (1949-) is an important and influential contemporary novelist in American literary circle, whose works always present the life of ordinary American people. Her masterpiece A Thousand Acres (1991) narrates the various acute contradictions between human beings resulting from scrambling for more land in modern American agricultural communities, and exposes Smiley’s profound thinking of man-land relationship.Based on the land ethic of Aldo Leopold, this thesis attempts to probe into the heroine Ginny’s perceiving course of self and human-land relationship through the narrative clue of A Thousand Acres from the perspective of women-land relationship. It aims at warning human beings to seek for harmonious ways to get along with the land.Besides introduction and conclusion, the thesis is divided into three chapters. Chapter one elaborates the intrinsic relationships between the land and women in the eco-system in A Thousand Acres from three aspects:land and women’s bodies both bear the responsibility of reproduction; the omnipresent water gives women mental enlightenment; animals and plants respond to women’s emotions. Chapter two concentrates on the deterioration of the land and women in the eco-system. Driven by the interests, the male farmers wreak havoc on the land. The original fertile land becomes barren cropland, the crystal clean waters are polluted, and various plants and animals are slaughtered cruelly. Likewise, women who live under the control of the male always cater to men, keeping silent and being obedient even when raped. From their similar sufferings, women gradually get to know that they are necessary parts of the land community. Chapter three focuses on the reaction of the land and women. The land begins to take revenge on human beings. These arrogant male landowners eventually pay the price for what they have done. After experiencing a series of sufferings, women gradually realize the similar existential state of women and the land. Women, acting as the spokesman, strongly denounce the male’s persecution to the land and women.From the above analysis, this thesis points out that the self-awakening of the heroine Ginny and her land ethical consciousness are implied in the description of the similar fates of the land and women in the novel. The tragic ending of human beings, especially women, and the gravity of the land displayed in A Thousand Acres alarms that if human beings do not enhance the ecological consciousness and show moral concern to the land, they would be self-defeating eventually.