Ceasing Domination Over Nature

Ian Mc Ewan is a prominent contemporary British writer.The novel Solar is based on his experience of interdisciplinary seminar on the expedition ship in 2005.Taking the global climate crisis and energy crisis as clues,the novel explores the imbalance in the relationship between humans and nature as well as the gender crisis in society,fully demonstrating Mc Ewan’s writing characteristics of being adept at exploring the dark side of human nature and society.Previous research on Solar mainly started from the perspective of technological ethics and feminism,while research based on the ecological perspective is relatively scarce.The thesis aims to explore the relationship between the global energy crisis and internal contradictions of society from the perspective of ecological destruction by using Marx and Engels’ ecological culture views and alienation theory,in which is to reveal Mc Ewan’s criticism of the root for the ecological crisis.The argumentation process is as follows:Chapter one briefly introduces Ian Mc Ewan and his main works.This chapter analyzes the development and current situation of research on Mc Ewan and his works at home and abroad,traces the ecological cultural views of Marx and Engels and expounds the ecological concerns in Solar.Chapter two analyzes the causes and essence of the natural ecological destruction in the novel.The relationship between man and nature in Solar is alienated.Mc Ewan focuses on the global energy and climate crisis,depicting the uncontrolled exploitation of natural resources and the alienation of the productive land under the dominant relationship constructed by capitalism.Chapter three analyzes the chaos of social ecology and the alienation of interpersonal relationships.Solar is set against the backdrop of excessive emissions and greenhouse effects in the real world.Mc Ewan focuses on depicting the further splitting of the relationship between man and nature under the instrumental rationality and abuse of technology.This chapter reveals that the root of the ecological crisis lies in the system itself.Blindly pursuing benefits while ignoring long-term development has become a dominant ideology in society and has materialised the relations between people.Chapter four discusses the barrenness of spiritual ecology and the alienation of humans themselves.The domination over nature in Solar ultimately reflects in the spiritual world of human beings and promotes the infinite expansion of desire.The protagonist grew up in an isolated family and fell into an identity crisis in such society.He placed his own value realization on the recognition of capital,thereby losing his ability to mourn and love.With no more inspiration,he became a machine of production,and eventually created a world of slavery with his own labour.Chapter five explains the marginalization and incompetence of Beard through analyzing the trinity of natural,social,and spiritual ecological destruction which cause negative effects on both psychology and physiology of him.In the novel Solar,nature is alienated as a tool,and social relationships and people themselves are materialized as well.Excessive material satisfaction has corrupted the protagonist’s body.And Beard,who grew up in an inclined gender relationship,gradually became self-centered and evaded responsibility.Becoming numb and mercenary,he eventually lost himself in the pursuit of material desires and became an inept plagiarist.Mc Ewan attempts to awaken the entire society through the tragedy of Beard,calling on society to abandon its domination over nature,eliminate gender inequality,and reshape the harmonious relationship between human beings and nature.Only in this way can the ecological crises of nature,society and spiritual worlds be solved,and each individual can achieve an overall development.