Reciprocity between Land and Human Beings: Ecopoetic Reading of John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath and Willa Cather’s O Pioneers!
Date
2012
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Abstract
The present dissertation examines The Grapes of Wrath and O Pioneers!, two
American novels of which the former exemplifies that agrarianism maintains spatial
conjunction of human beings to the land whereas corporate agribusiness imposes
spatial disjunction of human beings to the land which dispossesses, alienates,
dehumanizes and disenfranchises the poor migrant workers as mobile vagrants, while
the latter one illustrates homesteading role in transforming the prairie land into an
agricultural landscape maintaining its organicity through co-participation of land and
human beings, in terms of reciprocity between land and human beings. After a
meticulous study on both the novels in the light of various ecocritics on the
reciprocity between land and human beings, it becomes clear that the destiny of
human beings is intimately related to the destiny of land. The healthier the land
community, the happier and more harmonious human survival is. The deterioration of
land endangers the existence of human beings along with other species which inhabit
the land. Association with the land makes human beings feel sense of protection,
security and safety for surety. Working with the land, realizing its bio-rhythms
energizes human beings. Seeing being in all biota of land community, internalizing
unique intrinsic value of all beings and things, and respecting equal existence of all is
the only way to assist in maintaining the ecological unified whole which helps to
inter-animate the land and human beings and strengthens the bonding between them
as one of respect and love. This research concludes that the dignity and identity of
human beings is directly proportional to the dignity and identity of land community.
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Keywords
Reciprocity, Proportionate Interdependence, Spatial Conjunction, Ecopoetic Reading