MAN AND NATURE IN MELISSA HARRISON’S CLAY AND JANE SMILEY’S A THOUSAND ACRES

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Year-Number: 2019-29
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Number of pages: 8-12
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Abstract

Ecocriticism lays stress on the relationship between man and nature. As they are interrelated. The effects of human intervention on the environment, land, and nature have jeopardized our lives. Melissa Harrison and Jane Smiley in their fiction works draw the reader’s attention to a world where human actions have put everything at stake. Harrison in Clay demonstrates the importance of nature in human life. The story revolves around three characters. They feel lonesome and are unhappy. Their relationship with people in the city is not enough, they need connectedness to nature. Ultimately, they discover a small park in the midst of the city, and it becomes a source of comfort for them. On the other hand, Jane Smiley’s Pulitzer-winning novel, A Thousand Acres portrays the lives of farmers in Iowa, where farmers use a host of chemicals, toxins, and fertilizers. The farmers ignore the damaging impacts of these chemical substances on their lives and environment. Ultimately, readers come to know about the fate of the characters in the novel. As they suffer from different kinds of diseases due to the use of chemical substances. And their actions result in the destruction of the natural world. This paper discusses both novels form the angels of ecocriticism.

Keywords

Abstract

Ecocriticism lays stress on the relationship between man and nature. As they are interrelated. The effects of human intervention on the environment, land, and nature have jeopardized our lives. Melissa Harrison and Jane Smiley in their fiction works draw the reader’s attention to a world where human actions have put everything at stake. Harrison in Clay demonstrates the importance of nature in human life. The story revolves around three characters. They feel lonesome and are unhappy. Their relationship with people in the city is not enough, they need connectedness to nature. Ultimately, they discover a small park in the midst of the city, and it becomes a source of comfort for them. On the other hand, Jane Smiley’s Pulitzer-winning novel, A Thousand Acres portrays the lives of farmers in Iowa, where farmers use a host of chemicals, toxins, and fertilizers. The farmers ignore the damaging impacts of these chemical substances on their lives and environment. Ultimately, readers come to know about the fate of the characters in the novel. As they suffer from different kinds of diseases due to the use of chemical substances. And their actions result in the destruction of the natural world. This paper discusses both novels form the angels of ecocriticism.

Keywords


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