An Ecocritical Interpretation Of All The Light We Cannot See

Anthony Doerr is a rising star of the American literary landscape.He is a prolific write.Most of his works involve themes like the human ethics,the mysterious natural world and the relationship between human and nature.Doerr has published two novels,two collections of short stories and one memoirs since he published the first work the Shell Collect's in 2002.His masterpiece All the Light We Cannot See cost a decade and caused great social repercussions.It won “the 2015 Pulitzer prize(fictional)”.In this novel,Doerr defected on the essential of technology and reflected the relationship between human and nature by the existence dilemma of people in the war.Most literary critics interpreted this work from the perspectives of the creating background,the theme and so on,few of scholars analyze this novel from the perspective of ecocriticism.However this novel related to the nature writing and contained the ecological thoughts of Doerr.This thesis attempts to analyze the novel and its related issues from the perspective of ecocritical to reveal Doerr's ecological thoughts.The thesis is divided into five chapters.The first chapter is introduction.It makes a brief introduction of Anthony Doerr,All the Light We Cannot See,the overseas and domestic research,research methods and the ecocriticism,focus on ecofeminism and social ecology theory.The second chapter analyzes the root of Anthony Doerr's ecological consciousness.It is derived from three parts,special experience,social background and inheritance of transcendentalism.The third chapter shows the ecological crisis in the war.As far as Doerr's concerned,war is a nightmare.It not only destroys environment of Paris and Saint-Malo,but also makes individual sink into the spiritual crisis.The forth chapter uses social ecology theory to analyze the root of ecology crisis and the essence of technology.The unbalanced relationship leads to the outbreak of ecological crisis,the manipulation of man by man results in the fate of the nature which is ruled by people.This chapter starts with the analysis of Sergeant Major von Rumpel's.He plans to control the innocent and the nature in order to meet his interest.After that,it makes a detail analysis to the relationship between Werner Pfennig and Twenty Thousand under the Sea,probing into the connection between technology and ethics to redefine nature of technology.The fifth chapter reveals the close relationship between women and the nature by ecofeminism in order to explore the way of harmonious coexistence between man and nature.Doerr shapes Frau Elena and Madame Manec who are the symbol of mother of the nature.They are kindness,tolerance and bring up children.The former is a sacrificing family caregiver,the latter struggles against violent repression.Meanwhile Doerr also shapes a daughter of the nature Marie-Laure,she is a natural guardian,developing a close relationship with the nature.It is Marie-Laure who leads Werner to embrace the nature.The last part is conclusion.It summarizes the ecological thoughts in the works on the basis of the previous chapters: put down the greed,farewell to war,get along with others,follow woman to embrace the nature,return to the nature.Only in this way,can we get rid of the ecological crisis.