An Interpretation Of Pearl S. Buck's The Mother From The Ecofeminist Perspective

Pearl S. Buck, one of the most versatile and controversial contemporary female writers in America, is well-known for her vivid and realistic descriptions of Chinese peasant life and profound explorations into their interdependence on nature, particularly the earth. As a maternal woman writing for women about the problems of women,she generally deals with woman's problems in almost all of her books and particularly focuses on Chinese women's fate and status in the patriarchal society, among whom the impoverished peasant women are good instances. As one of her best novels, The Mother is her most elaborated portrait of the strong and ordinary Chinese peasant female figures. In the novel, a number of female characters, daughters of nature, are the vivid and typical instances, among whom are the tenacious and vigorous mother, the industrious and considerate cousin's wife,the pathetically ignorant and backward widow, and the independent and dominant daughter-in-law.This thesis, from the ecofeminist perspective, explores the ecofeminist thoughts embodied in The Mother, in which the suffocated oppression upon women and nature and the intimate affinity between women and nature are intertwined together to promote the awakening of female consciousness. They together uncover that Pearl S. Buck expresses a great many of her illuminating and inspiring thoughts and thinking concerning gender and human-nature problems into The Mother, which are in correspondence with the ecofeminists theory. Chapter one explores the husband's dualistic thinking which triggers a great many of negative effects upon himself, nature and the mother and the chastity code which causes devastating detriments for the victimized mother and the gossipy widow.Chapter two examines the mother's resemblance to the benevolent Earth Mother, her universal affection for nature as well as nature's healing function for her which work together to exquisitely display the interconnection between women and nature, the core viewpoint of ecofeminism. Chapter three deals with the awakening of female consciousness which is accompanied by the harsh oppression of patriarchal society and the interlink between women and nature, and is embodied in the mother's resistance against her husband, the daughter-in-law's control over her husband and also the sisterhood between the mother and the cousin's wife.