The Features Of Environmental Apocalypticism In A Friend Of The Earth

T.C.Boyle is a prominent contemporary American writer,and his novel A Friend of the Earth,published in 2000,is a masterpiece describing future environmental disasters among his works.With extraordinary imagination,he presents readers with the horrible scenes of future environmental catastrophe,which is of great significance in wakening people's consciousness of environmental crisis and motivating their actions of environmental protection.This thesis interprets this novel from the perspective of environmental apocalyptic literature study,one approach of eco-criticism,to explore its features of environmental apocalypticism and reveal its social significance.This thesis includes three chapters apart from the introduction and conclusion.The introduction covers the life of the author,the main plot of the novel A Friend of the Earth,related researches at home and abroad as well as the significance of interpreting this novel from the perspective of environmental apocalypticism.Chapter One introduces the connotation and characteristics of environmental apocalypticism.As the combination of apocalyptic literature and modern theme of environment,environmental apocalypticism mainly includes two aspects: displaying the horrible scenes of future environmental disasters and arousing the public's awareness of environmental crisis.The latter is of great value in avoiding future catastrophes.Boyle's A Friend of the Earth demonstrates the connotation and characteristics of environmental apocalypticism.Therefore,it can be regarded as a typical one.Chapter Two mainly analyzes the four apocalyptic images that are closely related to the outbreak of future environmental catastrophes in this novel.They are self-indulgence represented by Tierwater,the excessive deforestation of timber companies,worship for science and technology represented by the Reagan administration and the thorny problem of overpopulation in Southern California.Under the influence of the above four images,Southern California meets its doomsday in 2025.As a result,the web of life turns into the web of death.Moreover,these images are of great value in guiding people to adjust their relationship with nature and reflect on their previous behaviors.Chapter Three explores the techniques to arouse people's consciousness of environmental crisis in this novel,including the narrative method of the combination of juxtaposition of time and space and magnified scale of crisis,the apocalyptic depiction of Sierra as a modern Cassandra and the depiction of double dilemmas faced by the characters.All of these are conductive to displaying the future environmental catastrophe comprehensively and making people have a sense of crisis.As a result,they can change their thought and take effective measures to prevent such doom from occurring in the real world.The Conclusion points out that the outbreak of future environmental disasters is the inevitable result of humans' excessive exploitation and plunder of nature.It's a man-made catastrophe,which will lead to the crisis of humans' survival in the end.With the current worsening environment,interpreting the novel from the perspective of environmental apocalypticism is of great help in arousing people's awareness of environmental crisis and establishing a new relationship between humans and nature featured by harmony and coexistence.What's more important is that all of these make great contributions to the establishment of contemporary ecological civilization.