| In recent years,the frequently occurrences of smog have further confirmed the increasing deterioration of environment around the world.And human society mired in the smog presents problems in the stressed social interpersonal relations,moral anxiety,etc.All these problems influence people's thoughts about man's values and moral stances during their economic activities in the society and in the process of individuals' pursuit of self-realization.They also arouse people's reflections on the relations between man and nature,man and man,man and society,man and himself;should the relations be dualistic or integration between the subject and the object.The aforementioned problems,actually,can find their entry into the 2008 American National Book Award fiction Shadow Country by Peter Matthiessen.The fiction centers on the protagonist E.D.Watson,who is a sugarcane planter living from the late ninetieth century to the beginning of the twentieth century;he has got the experience of exploring the frontier,exploiting the land of American Florida peninsula,committing bad deeds such as evil killing and excessive shooting.He also escapes from arrest and wanders alone,being alienated from families and friends and finally shot to death by his neighbors.In the fiction,the protagonist attempts to realize his life plan along with the waves of capitalism and commercialism,and by means of the tacit "frontier code"-inhumane means such as cruelty,greed,violence,etc.to achieve his capitalist dream of making fortunes.Meanwhile,he often suffers from estrangement with his families and friends,feeling spiritual emptiness and moral guilt.The cardinal line of the fiction is E.D.Watson's life story,while the implied line is the historical progress on this frontier.These two lines are interwoven together with a common theme of disharmony,in other words,the realization of individuals'acquirement and temporary objectives are at the cost of harmonious relations.That disharmony,in the Shadow Country,is detailed at three levels.The thesis argues that three dimensions of disharmony can be identified in Shadow Country,namely,conflicts between settlers who cling to the mechanical anthropocentrism and the Florida's natural ecology,disorder among settlers who are self-centered,eager for capital,power,commercial profits and personal interests,and disharmony of the self who are caught in an ethical dilemma between obsession with pursuing immoral interests,aggressive desire and moral condemnation.Based on some theories and ideas in eco-ethics,the thesis points out that harmony is quintessential.According to ecological ethicist Arne Naess,man's self-consciousness should go through a maturation of ego towards a social self and finally an eco-Self;the process of self-realization is a process of expanding self-identity.Therefore,this thesis will argue over the conception of eco-Self,defining the eco-Self as an overall harmonious relation.The true sense of self-realization in the context of eco-ethics is the formation of eco-self.In order to fulfill an eco-self,three dimensions of harmony,that is,relations between man and nature,man and man and man with himself should be achieved.However,in the Shadow Country,people failed in doing so.So,the thesis demonstrates settlers' failure from three aspects.Firstly,the thesis argues from Aldo Leopold's "land community",laying emphasis on egalitarianism and equilibrium in the interrelated eco-system.Then,it exposes settlers' narrow sense of self-identity through their cruel slaughtering and massive shooting.Because they do not obey the basic principles of protection,respect and love in the eco-system,the settlers eventually confront the hurricane's punishment.Since man's goal is to seek interests,society as a derivative place from the primitive nature deserves attention for analysis of man's relations in the societal units.Therefore,starting from Thoreau's "community of love",this thesis elaborates on man's irresponsibility and selfishness,due to which cause social interpersonal relations to be apathetic and disordered.Finally,according to Wang Dengfeng's argument on self-consistency and harmonious society,the thesis turns back to analysis individual's psychological state.With the support of Freud's theories on personality and Maslow's"Hierarchy of Needs Theory",the thesis finds out individuals are inclined to have a split personality in the disharmonious society.Based on discussions above,the thesis argues judging from people's temporary satisfaction,they seem to have achieved self-realization.Whereas,it is just an illusion,because their unsuccessful construction and maintaining harmonious relations in the eco-system have brought disturbance to the psychological self,disintegrated the love community,and when the disrupted nature pays back with a tremendous hurricane,all the previous gains vanish into futility and all the aggressive ambitions turn into disillusionment.At last,it draws a conclusion;to fulfill a real self-realization,man should construct overall harmonious relations in the eco-system. |
PDF Full Text Request