Cheryll Glotfelty defines ecocriticism as “the study of the relationship between literature and the physical environment”. Ecocriticism poses a call to literature to connect to the environmental emergencies present in today’s 21st century context. In other words, ecocriticism is directly concerned with both nature (natural landscape) and the environment (landscape both natural and urban). Nature can be characterised from an ecocritical point of view “as existing apart from the social and economic structures of everyday life, often in places of wild or scenic beauty, with as little trace of humanity as possible.” (Hess, S, 2009, pp. 91) As a result, society battles to take a fair viewpoint on nature, as our understanding is constructed by existing cultural standards. Ultimately, by viewing humanity as the crux of existence, nature becomes merely a resource: ‘a raw material to be transformed into use-value for humanity’ (Connor 1996: 278). This hyperseraparation from nature poses a potential fatal outcome for the physical environment, as the ability to view ourselves as a part of ecosystems becomes damaged as we perceive the natural world as a disposable commodity, thus downplaying our understanding of how nature both sustains the environment and supports our lives. Therefore, this essay will draw on anthropocentrism and the dualistic nature between culture and nature binaries to comparatively analyse the excerpt from Consolations of the Forest (2013) by Sylvain Tesson and
Summary The article “Returning the Gift” that written by Robin Kimmerer has discussed the importance of having our appreciations for nature. The Earth is providing many valuable gifts for us, including fresh air, water, lands and many more natural resources to keep us alive. The author has pointed out that human beings are being greedy, and taking everything for granted. From the author’s perspective, human beings should feel grateful of what we have.
The following poems all teach readers the importance and significance of wildlife and the horrible treatment they too often receive from human beings. As everything becomes more modern, we can not help but stray farther away from nature. This increasingly insensitive attitude can have detrimental effects on the environment. Although the elements of poetry used in the following poems vary, Gail White’s “Dead Armadillos,” Walt McDonald’s “Coming Across It,” and Alden Nowlan’s “The Bull Moose,” all share one major conflict; our civilization 's problematic relationship to the wild.
In his passage from “Last Child in the Woods,” Richard Louv uses various rhetorical strategies in order to make his audience more supportive of his argument. The passage discusses the connection, or really the separation, between people and nature. On this subject, Louv argues the necessity for people to redevelop their connection with nature. His use of tone, anecdotes, rhetorical questions, and factual examples all help develop the pathos and logos of his piece.
Many people who go into nature always see it as something beautiful and aesthetic, but they never see the other side to nature. Humankind’s connection with nature isn’t a real one. They always look at the bright side of nature but are blind to the true dark side of nature. JB MacKinnon’s article “False Idyll” (2012), reveals that nature is not just flowers in a field but can also be the survival of the fittest. He backs up his claim by talking about nature through anecdotes and expert’s research.
Although DeLillo’s novel does not focus entirely on eco-centric arguments, “[nature] intrudes in White Noise [through] its apparent absence” (Love
Richard Louv, a novelist, in Last Child in the Woods (2008) illustrates the separation between humans and nature. His purpose to the general audience involves exposing how the separation of man from nature is consequential. Louv adopts a sentimental tone throughout the rhetorical piece to elaborate on the growing separation in modern times. Louv utilizes pathos, ethos and logos to argue that the separation between man and nature is detrimental.
The author Richard Louv wrote an essay on the connection of nature to humans in the modern world. He expands on the fact that technology has taken away our abilities to appreciate nature for it’s true beauty. Children growing up in today’s world aren’t having the resources to appreciate nature and it’s beauty because of technology, according to him. He gives examples of the changing technology in the world: cars, mobile devices, advertisements, you name it. In Last Child in the Woods, Louv uses rhetorical devices to display his thoughts through examples and evidence.
In Greg Peterson’s, view, a renowned environmentalist "Our downfall as a species is that we are arrogant enough to think that we can control Mother Nature and stupid enough to think it is our job.” But we as humans ignore that fact, we ignored it for centuries and we still do. In Tangerine, we see that that idea is perfectly woven into the story. In Tangerine, most people are not affluent and the land there had gone through many stages of development that worsens the rift between man and nature but yet they have an uneasy balance with nature. One that may not last.
Evelyn White continues, “certain if I ventured outside to admire a meadow or to feel cool ripples in a stream, I’d be taunted, attacked, raped, maybe even murdered because of the color of my skin” (White 1063). This perspective, illustrates what she believes would happen, if she were to go “outside”. The consequences would be ugly, and she makes the reader even feel threatened by this. She describes the nature itself as more relaxing and beautiful to look at, but then contradicts it with her feelings of fear and vulnerability to the wilderness. In the text “Nature”, by Raymond Williams, he explains the complexity of nature as a “tension: nature was at once innocent, unprovided, sure, unsure, fruitful, destructive, a pure force and tainted and cursed” (Williams 222).
In the essay, “A Literature of Place”, by Barry Lopez focuses on the topic of human relationships with nature. He believes human imagination is shaped by the architectures it encounters within life. Lopez first starts his essay with the statement that geography is a shaping force for humans. This shaping force is what creates our imagination; the shaping force is found within nature. Everything humans see within nature is remembered, thus creating new ideas and thoughts for our imagination.
Nowadays, we are really taking advantage of it for futile uses and ruining it with our pollution. Nature’s destiny, though, has not always been seen as determined by human actions. There was a period in which Nature was considered more powerful than humans, and the Dark Romantic genre was created to highlight this idea.
He argues that we should treat our land with care and respect as we now treat one another, for we will be ushering a new era of change the is all for the better. The second half of the essay begins with "The Ecological Conscience". Starting off by stating “Conservation is a state of harmony between men and land” and going on to describe how our fight for land is improving it is moving far too slow. This transforms into the
Nature is easily projected onto, as it allows for a sense of peacefulness and escapism. Due to its ability to evoke an emotional reaction from the masses, many writers have glorified it through various methods, including describing its endless beauty and utilizing it as a symbol for spirituality. Along with authors, artists also show great respect and admiration for nature through paintings of grandiose landscapes. These tributes disseminate a fixed interpretation of the natural world, one full of meaning and other worldly connections. In “Against Nature,” Joyce Carol Oates strips away this guise given to the environment and replaces it with a harsher reality.
We should value nature and its animals much more (Becker, 1971). In today’s world we have what Becker calls a “power-saw mentality” (Becker, 1971, p. 114). Instead we’re greedy with what nature has to offer us. “Man takes what nature offers us, but usually only what he needs” (Becker, 1971, p. 114). There is a psychological difference in today’s world of what we enjoy out of nature (Becker, 1971).
Therefore, we need to think about tomorrow with respect to every action that we take in the environment and in this case we can say that sustainable development requires slower population growth. With this in mind, we need to be educated through our cultures about the impact we caused to the environment as we continue to reproduce. The challenge of environmental ethics has led to the attempt to apply traditional ethical theories, including consequentialism, deontology, and virtue ethics, to support contemporary environmental concerns; the preservation of biodiversity as an ethical goal; the broader concerns of some thinkers with wilderness, the built environment and the politics of poverty; the ethics of sustainability and climate change, and some directions for possible future developments of the discipline [ CITATION And15 \l 1033 ]. With this multi-dimensional approach one can see that it is more of a cultural issue to think of it from its origin.