摘 要

《愤怒的葡萄》是20世纪美国最伟大的小说之一，讲述了佃农乔德一家由于干旱被迫从俄克拉荷马西迁加州的故事。本文旨在从生态女性主义批评的视角对小说的思想和艺术表现加以分析，通过揭示约翰·斯坦贝克的生态女性主义意识、小说中的生态危机和两位典型的具有自然特征的女性形象，探讨女性与自然的关系的重大意义，最后得出结论尊重女性与善待自然对于建立生态文明社会具有重要指导作用。

关键词：约翰·斯坦贝克；《愤怒的葡萄》；生态女性主义；自然；生态不平衡；

和谐

Contents

1. Introduction………………………………………………………………………...1

2. Demonstration………………………………………………………………………3

2.1. John Steinbeck and his ecofeminist consciousness in The Grapes of Wrath……..3

2.1.1. The awakener towards ecological crisis ………………………………………..3

2.1.2. The advocate of women liberation……………………………………………...4

2.2. Ecofeminism reflected in The Grapes of Wrath……………………………..……6

2.2.1. The ecological ideology in terms of ecological disequilibrium……………...…6

2.2.1.1. Battle between nature and human beings…………………………………..…6

2.2.1.2. Conflicts between the rich and the poor………………………………....……7

2.2.1.3. Conflicts between the “Okies” and local Californians………………………..9

2.2.2. The feminist thinking in terms of “naturalized” characteristics……………….10

2.2.2.1. Ma Joad: an example of independence and self-reliance………………....…10

2.2.2.2. Rose of Sharon: a symbol of fortitude and feminism………………..………13

2.3. The ecofeminist significance in The Grapes of Wrath…………………..………15

2.3.1. Powerful inspiration to ecological sustainability………………………....…...15

2.3.2. Fresh perspective upon women liberation……………………………......……16

1. Conclusion…………………………………………………………………...........17

Works Cited…………………………………………………………………..............19

Bibliography………………………………………………………………….............20

An Eco-Feminist Analysis of The Grapes of Wrath

1. Introduction

John Ernest Steinbeck(1902-1968) is a renowned, influential and controversial American writer in the modern literary history. For “[being] a bold observer of human behavior in both tragic and comic situations” (张昌宋 376) with solicitude and sympathy to the people on the fringes of society and strong faith in humanity for human to endure and prevail, he got recognized as Nobel Prize winner in 1964. Throughout his creation period, his early works--Cup of Gold(1929), The Pastures of Heaven(1932), and To a God Unknown(1933) received little attention but Tortilla Flat(1935), In Dubious Battle(1936), Of Mice and Man(1937), The Moon Is Down(1942), especially The Grapes of Wrath(1939) have laid him unshakable position in American literary history.

Inspired by “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”, a war song of the Civil War with the lines “Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord,/ He is tramping out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored” (常耀信 266), Steinbeck named his book, as the song implied, indignantly showing his passionate rebellion to injustice and appeal to the potential violence. At that time when the Great Depression plunged the country into a deeper economic slump and ecological disturbance, families like the Joads afflicted with bankruptcy and homelessness were compelled to move westward to California for a promising future. However, their brutalizing and traumatic journey accompanied with the unfolding death and intensified conflicts among human beings and between human and nature was next door to devastating. When they reached their destination hopefully, bitter resistance from the landowners brought about crushing blows to the migrants, leading to an overwhelming sense of wrath instead of patience. The story was filled with despair until the last chapter where Rose of Sharon offered her milk to a dying man showing a gleam of hope.

Since the emergence of the first critical book of The Grapes of Wrath in 1944, many academic studies from home and abroad proceeded in a constant stream. Foreign critics commented it as “an honest, sympathetic, and artistically powerful presentation of economic, social, and human problems” (Shockley 351), while in the 1940s, it passed through a tough ordeal as “proletarian” under peculiar political environment. In recent decades, scholars tends to interpret the book from the perspective of philosophy, myth and legend, Ecocriticism, symbolism, multiculturalism and new historicism. Chinese researchers,in spite of their less systematic findings, have invested more energy in environmentalism, modernism and ecofeminism.