An Interpretation Of All The Light We Cannot See From The Perspective Of Social Ecology

Anthony Doerr(1973–)was born in Cleveland,Ohio.His works include Seashells,About Grace,Four Seasons in Rome and Memory Wall and his short stories are included in The Scribner Anthology of Contemporary Fiction,The Anchor Book of New American Short Stories and The Best Short Stories in the United States.Doerr won the O.Henry Prizes for novels for three times,a national magazine award and a trolley prize with short stories and was given a high degree of recognition from the Barnes & Noble Discover Prize,the Rome Prize and Yong Lions Fiction Award.In addition,in 2007,Anthony Doerr was listed in the twenty-one best young American novelists' ranking by the famous literary magazine Granta.All the Light We Cannot See is Doerr's fifth work,which took him ten years to complete.As soon as it was published,it has occupied the best-selling list of New York Times and Amazon of the United States.At the end of 2014,more than thirty mainstream media and bookstores named it the best novel of the year and in 2015,it was honored the Pulitzer Prize(fictional class).The reviewer Martha Anne Thor said that “every sentence has been polished to shine”(Doerr,2014: cover);the writer J.R.Maureen evaluated that Doerr “sees the world as a scientist,but feels it as a poet”(Doerr,2014: cover).In addition to its wonderful content and brilliant languages,the connotation of the novel is also very rich,especially the social ecological implications.Social ecology was an ecological philosophy that had been gradually clarified by Murray Bookchin in 1960 s.To Bookchin,the present ecological problems are deep rooted in the social ones;to be more specific,the concept of hierarchy in human society leads to the domination of man by man,which results in the domination of nature by man;as a result,the relationship between man and nature deteriorates and the ecological crisis emerge.In All the Light We Cannot See,Doerr fully demonstrates the concept of hierarchy and domination in human society and also their influence on human society,nonhuman nature and the way to apply technology,which should not be underestimated.This thesis is consists of three parts.The first part introduces the life of the author,the novel All the Light We Cannot See and the research status at home and abroad as well as a brief criticism of social ecology.The second part,which is the main body of the thesis,includes three chapters.The first chapter explores Doerr's ecological view of society embodied in All the Light We Cannot See.Doerr believes that humans should criticize the domination of the subordinate by the superior and the weak by the strong in human society.In the novel,the concept of hierarchy is deep-rooted in the mind of humans living in the coal-mining complex and the National Political Institutes of Education,which leads to the domination of the subordinate by the superior basing on the relationship of commands and obedience.The fate of the dominated is controlled by the ones who dominate.In wars,due to the domination of the weak by the strong,humans' lives are easily trodden on and they suffer from psychological damages.The second chapter examines Doerr's ecological view of nature in the novel.In Doerr's standpoint,humans should change the concept of hierarchy between nature and themselves and the domination of nature by man.In the novel,the domination of humans on nature brings harms to the nonhuman nature.For instance,the lives of the living in nonhuman nature are deprived easily;the nonliving is plundered and exploited at humans' will to satisfy their own needs.Doerr maintains that humans should affirm the subjectivity of the nonhuman nature and gradually decompose the hierarchy between nonhuman nature and themselves.Thus,the harmony between them can be reconstructed.The third chapter conveys Doerr's ecological view of technology in the novel.In Doerr's mind,humans should gradually eliminate the influence of the hierarchical structure of society on the application of technology and hold a rational attitude towards it.In the novel,the use of electromagnetic waves has dual effects.It brings humans spiritual satisfaction and consolation,but in hierarchical society,it is used to foment people's moods of militancy and deprive the living right of humans.Doerr argues that humans should decompose the hierarchy existing in human society and become alert to the disasters brought about by the abuse of technology in human history.The third part is the conclusion.In Doerr's point of view,in contemporary society,the concept of hierarchy is deep rooted in the mind of humans and correspondingly,the domination of man by man and nature by man arises,of which the former brings physical and spiritual damages to mankind and the latter leads to the plunder and exploitation of the nonhuman nature.In the process of applying technology,the abuse is mainly caused by the domination of man by man in a hierarchical society.Only by eliminating the concept of hierarchy in humans' psychological structure can the domination of man by man and nature by man be removed.Then,the ecological view of society,nature and technology can be developed.