An Environmental Justice Ecocritical Interpretation Of Mean Spirit

Linda Hogan (1947–), a contemporary prolific Chickasaw woman writer, is one ofthe most influential American Indian writers in the American literary landscape. Most of herworks involve themes like the American Indian culture and history, the social justice and theenvironmental protection and so on. Mean Spirit (1990), Hogan’s first and classic novel, isone of the most representative works which involve the theme of environmental protection.This novel caught extensive attentions in the literary field as soon as it was published andmost literary critics interpreted this work from the perspectives of post-colonialism, feminismand so on. Yet, a small number of scholars analyze this novel from the perspective ofenvironmental justice ecocriticism. Moreover, most of their critical works on this work arenot comprehensive and intensive enough. Therefore, this thesis tends to analyze this novel onthe basis of environmental justice ecocriticism. Through the discussion of the environmentalinjustice embodied in Mean Spirit, people can be aware of the importance of theenvironmental justice and figure out the ecological value and realistic significance of LindaHogan’s works.This thesis structurally falls into three parts, namely, the introduction part, the mainbody and the conclusion part. The introduction part firstly gives a brief survey of LindaHogan’s literary achievements and the previous studies on Mean Spirit and then gives anoverview of the environmental justice ecocriticism. The main body of this thesis firstly talksabout the environmental injustice embodied in Mean Spirit on the basis of the environmental justice ecocriticism. The profit-centered white Euro-Americans not only bring destructivedamage to the living environment of the American Indians but also make them, the peoplewho have a strong attachment to the land, suffer from severe spiritual crisis. Based on theabove analysis, the following chapter analyzes the main causes which lead to theenvironmental destruction of Osage Tribe and the spiritual crisis of Osage Indians, namely,the misleading of the anthropocentrism of Christianity, the irrational concept of moneycaused by the capitalism and the rigidly portrayed image of the American Indians whichprovides elegant excuse for the white Americans’ environmental racism. Hogan points outthat the collective resistance, silent revolt and returning to the Indian traditions are effectiveways to fight against the environmental racism exerted by the dominant white society, whichcan not only heal the mental trauma of Osage Indians, but also help them to recover the hopeand faith. Simultaneously, Hogan also comments that the temporary departure of OsageIndians is not a sign of weakness and cowardice but a kind of positive and powerfulresistance. They leave for survival, furthermore, for cultural continuity and nationalrejuvenation. After briefly summarizing the content of this thesis, the conclusion part furtherindicates that the environmental injustice foisted by the Euro-Americans not only leads tosurvival crisis of the American Indians as well as serious environmental problems of localplace, but also brings ruinous destruction to the whole ecosystem. This suggests that peopleshould examine the increasingly serious ecological crisis from the perspective ofenvironmental justice ecocriticism.Everyone has equal right to enjoy healthy living environment. Any individual orsociety cannot safeguard their own interests at the expense of others’ basic survival rights.The dominant societies (such as the Euro-Americans) should liberate the marginalized people(such as the American Indians) from the bondage of environmental injustice to prevent theOsage tragedy. Only by eliminating the environmental racism, can the environmental crisisbe fundamentally solved; only by practicing the environmental justice, can we build aharmonious and beautiful world.