生态批评视域下的约翰·斯坦贝克小说研究OA

Using ecological criticism theory as a tool,this paper conducts a multidimensional interpretation of John Steinbeck's novella Of Mice and Men.Different from the traditional socio-economic critical perspective,this paper breaks through the previous singular approach of viewing it merely as a social protest novel,and constructs an inte-grated ecological framework encompassing natural ecology,social ecology,and spiritual ecology.The barren land and bleak landscape in the novel,as well as the symbolic significance of animal,are not mere background settings but metaphors for the imbalance in natural ecology;this imbalance is isomorphic and mapped onto human society,mani-festing as the dual"displacement"of human spirit and natural homeland under the impact of modern industrial civi-lization;this further internalizes into individuals'persistence in their"land dream"amid alienation and loneliness,representing a deep alienation in spiritual ecology.Of Mice and Men is not only an elegy for the Great Depression era,but also an ecological warning with cautionary significance-it reveals that when the bond between humans and the land breaks,the social community will inevitably disintegrate,and human spirit will also fall into the nihilistic ontological dilemma of having nowhere to turn.