A Comparative Study Of The Good Earth And A Thousand Acres From The Perspective Of Ecofeminism

Ecofeminism is the integration of feminism and ecology which first appeared in 1970 s,during the third wave of the feminist movement.Ecofeminists insist that,in patriarchal society,women and nature suffer similar oppressions from men.Thus,they appeal for women to lead a liberation movement for nature in order to achieve harmonious and stable development of relationship among men,women and nature.Moreover,ecofeminist literary criticism pays much attention to reading literary works,especially the feminist works,so as to reveal the symbolic connection between women and nature in them,criticize anthropocentrism and patriarchal culture,and arouse people's awareness of ecology and environmental protection by excavating the nature writings of women writers and advocating their natural narration(Gaard & Murphy 2013: 1).Pearl S.Buck(1892-1973)and Jane Smiley(1949-)are both famous contemporary feminist writers,whose works,The Good Earth and A Thousand Acres deal with the conflicts between men,women and nature,which embody the typical pattern of ecofeminism.Though studies on The Good Earth and A Thousand Acres both refer to ecofeminism,most of them concentrate on the analysis of the ecofeminist thoughts in single work and it is not found that the two works are studied comparatively.Though both written by American writers,The Good Earth is a story of Chinese peasants,while A Thousand Acres is set on a farm of western America.So they are telling stories of female characters not only in different countries but also in different times,revealing the relationship between women and nature against different historical and cultural backgroundsBased on the theory of ecofeminism and taking The Good Earth and A Thousand Acres as the objects of comparative study,this thesis tries to analyze the relationships between women and nature in different countries and in different times,the influence of patriarchal ideas on the position and destiny of countryside women and nature,and the different ways countryside women adopt to attain to liberation and independence with the help of nature.Through the comparative analysis of the two novels,this thesis concludes that,no matter whether it is in China or in America,the relationships between women and nature are harmonious indeed;under the guidance of feminist principles,men,women and nature can live harmoniously together.Meanwhile,due to the influence of the personal experiences of the authors,their different writing motivations,in The Good Earth and A Thousand Acres,female characters adopt different ways to fight against patriarchy and achieve different results.Besides,the cultural backgrounds of the novels also influence the relationship among men,women and nature in some aspects.