Returning To Nature And Coexisting Concordantly

As the first Afro-American female that has won the Nobel Prize in Literature, ToniMorrison is one of the most outstanding writers in America and even in the world. Herwork mainly concerns the manifestation and exploration of the black people’s destinies,history and inner world, compromising consummately ideological content and artisticquality. A Mercy is Morrison’s ninth novel, published in November2008. Since itsinitial appearance, this novel has attracted extensive attention and praises of scholarsand experts at home and abroad, and is regarded as Morrison’s best book in recentyears.Ecocriticism is a literary criticism that probes into the relations between literatureand nature under the direction of ecologism, especially the ecological holism. It mainlyreveals the ecological thought contained in literary works, expounds the ideological andcultural root-causes of the ecocrisis reflected in literature; besides, it also explores theecological aesthetics of literature and its artistic expression.From the perspective of ecocriticism, the author of this thesis tries to analyze theecological ideas contained in A Mercy by means of interpreting the ecological factors inthis novel from three aspects of natural ecology, social ecology and spiritual ecology. Itcan be perceived that Morrison ponders profoundly over aspects like natural shapes,social relations, human inner world as well as the intersexual relationship. Moreover,we can also find the positive ecological thoughts about the harmonious coexistencebetween man and nature, equality and mutual assistance between human beings, soundand complete mind of the individual that are embodied in this novel.This thesis falls into six chapters. Chapter one sketches Morrison’s life experienceand major works, the gist of A Mercy and its ecological factors; it also reviews theacademic research conditions of A Mercy at home and abroad.Chapter two traces the development background, study methods and significance ofecocriticism. Chapter three explores the embodiment of natural ecology in A Mercy. Through thedescription of the natural landscape in the North American colonies and the critique ofhuman behaviors to destroy the nature and reconstruction of the harmoniousrelationship between man and nature, Morrison adequately expresses her naturalecology viewpoint.Chapter four discusses the social ecology included in A Mercy. People fromdifferent races are physically injured and mentally affected in distorted social relations;the sisterhood between Rebekka and Lina lays stress on the significance of the equalityand mutual assistance among mankind, the initial daily life on Jacob’s farm that is justlike a heaven of peace and happiness highlights once again the importance of theequality and fraternity of human beings, thus demonstrating Morrison’s ideas of socialecology about friendly coexistence and mutual assistance between people.Chapter five approaches the spiritual ecology embodied in A Mercy. Throughportraying the sublimation of self-consciousness and construction of self-personality ofFlorens, Lina’s self-salvation with the aid of native culture and Sorrow’s acceptance ofthe reality and improvement of herself, Morrison shows her admiration for differentforms of spiritual ecology like self-identity, faith and self-liking. Only on the basis ofthe strength of the aforementioned varieties of spiritual ecology, can one fulfill theconstruction of a wholesome personality, which will be conducive to the formation of ahealthy and harmonious relationship between men.Chapter six is the conclusion of this thesis. In A Mercy, Morrison gives specialattention to relations between humanity and nature, person and person, as well as manand himself. She advocates that people should return to nature and seek in nature thespiritual strength and comfort; meanwhile, she also points out the acquisition of one’stranquil mind and wholesome spiritual ecology can hardly do without the love forothers and himself. The ultimate settlement of ecocrisis depends on the mutualunderstanding, tolerance and fraternity between different nations and races, only in thisway can the healthy and harmonious ecological environment be expected.