Three Relationships In Go Down, Moses

William Faulkner (1897-1962) is a famous American writer in the twentieth century. His works, mainly set in his apocryphal Yoknapatawpha County, cover themes like the failure and decay of the old South, civil war, race, human nature, and etc. Stories in Go Down, Moses is "the miniature of the Southern land and represents the whole developing and transitional histories" which deserves several literary researches.The novel, taking Isaac McCaslin’s hunting experiences and his reaching maturity as main thread, tells us stories of McCaslin saga of both white and black descendents. The work expresses Faulkner’s condemnations and reflections toward slavery, racism and patriarchy, indicates the significant influences of Puritanism and traditional cultures, and conveys his bewilderment on eco-environment.Forest, land and animals are always the main objects for eco-ethical literature. Go Down, Moses, especially The Forest Trilogy, embodies his major natural ideas that being living entities, forest, land and animals share the same status with human beings.Through the analysis of three relationships, which are relationships between human beings and nature, among human beings, and between human beings and society, the thesis aims to reexamine the natural entities of status and value, reveal Faulkner’s pre-eminent eco-ethical ideas; and appeal that human beings acknowledge nature’s values, respect and protect the nature. Men should be responsible for societal duties to restrain mental and moral crisis over material rapacity, and thus construct eco-ethical concordance and harmonious social civilization.