Cultural ecology

The aim of the present study is to investigate McCarthy’s All the Pretty Horses which revolves around the relationship between John and nature with a focus on the horses. Different aspects of the novel including social, cultural, and spiritual ecology are studied. In ecocriticism, the otherness of nature is one of the main themes that signifies the gap between humanity and nature that eventually results in the destruction of the environment and nature. This study also shows how the main characters, John and Alejandra, are linked in the novel which turns the present study to an ecofeminist research. The novel mostly depicts the image of John wandering in nature and searching for his identity, to be punished. Therefore, the researcher scrutinizes the link between John, nature and Alejandra and tries to examine how the novel shows similar attitudes towards both women and nature in All the Pretty Horses.

This paper adopted the Eco-feminism approach to explore Shell Shaker, solely filled with Native American settings and issues. So, both nature and the woman of the Native American context were the focus of the study. The researcher showed how the Native American women can be representative of the nature of their ancestral lands and identify with it. The main argument that the researcher intended to study was parallel roles of both women and natural land for Native American. To this purpose, theories and notions of several thinkers were exploited. The researcher found different scenes in the novel that show both aspects of nature which include the mentioned concepts. On ‘maternity’, the researcher depicted how nature is considered a source of giving life and existence to the world like women. On 'otherness', the researcher found how nature is marginalized and ignored just like women. In other words, it is shown nature, like women, is ‘other' and secondary in the society. It was shown how nature and culture are related. Besides, it was proved that there is a close relationship between women and nature that one can delve further into. This paper adopted the Eco-feminism approach to explore Shell Shaker, solely filled with Native American settings and issues. So, both nature and the woman of the Native American context were the focus of the study. The researcher showed how the Native American women can be representative of the nature of their ancestral lands and identify with it. The main argument that the researcher intended to study was parallel roles of both women and natural land for Native American. To this purpose, theories and notions of several thinkers were exploited.