An Ecocritical Reading of John Updike's Novel, of the Farm
An Ecocritical reading of John Updike’s novel, Of the Farm
E.Seethaselvam Assistant Professor of English M.K.U. College, Madurai – 625002.
At Present : Teacher Fellow (Ph.D. FDP-UGC-XI Plan) Dept. of English DDE, M.K.University Madurai – 625021. Ecocriticism is the response of the literary community to restore the balance of the universe because extreme anthropocentrism has resulted in the depletion of the ozone layer and the contamination of the world’s natural resources. This paper gives an overview of representation of nature in John Updike’s novel, Of the Farm. John Updike was one of the most prolific writers of America who chronicled the drama of small town American life in his novels. Though Updike’s oeuvre is large, he became most famous through his Rabbit series (Rabbit, Run; Rabbit Redux; Rabbit is Rich; Rabbit at Rest; and the novella Rabbit Remembered like Wordsworth he gives importance to nature and aesthetic sense. This sense of love towards nature is found in Of the Farm. Land plays a vital role in most of the American novels. The Eastern land which is the place of action in Of the Farm is not the open country of Nebraska or New Mexico. It is the Pennsylvania countryside, which is the setting for the Olinger stories as well. Of the Farm, presents an action that occurs over a week end in the life of thirty five year old Joey Robinson in the year 1965. Joey Robinson, an advertising consultant visits his widowed mother over a weekend on her Eastern Pennsylvania farm in the company of his recently acquired second wife Peggy and her eleven year old son Richard. The main purpose of the visit is to give Joey’s ailing mother and his new wife a chance to know each other better. But the woven are alternatively hostile and friendly at times. Joey himself has to tangle not only with the females but also with the ghost of his dead father and his
E.Seethaselvam Assistant Professor of English M.K.U. College, Madurai – 625002.
At Present : Teacher Fellow (Ph.D. FDP-UGC-XI Plan) Dept. of English DDE, M.K.University Madurai – 625021. Ecocriticism is the response of the literary community to restore the balance of the universe because extreme anthropocentrism has resulted in the depletion of the ozone layer and the contamination of the world’s natural resources. This paper gives an overview of representation of nature in John Updike’s novel, Of the Farm. John Updike was one of the most prolific writers of America who chronicled the drama of small town American life in his novels. Though Updike’s oeuvre is large, he became most famous through his Rabbit series (Rabbit, Run; Rabbit Redux; Rabbit is Rich; Rabbit at Rest; and the novella Rabbit Remembered like Wordsworth he gives importance to nature and aesthetic sense. This sense of love towards nature is found in Of the Farm. Land plays a vital role in most of the American novels. The Eastern land which is the place of action in Of the Farm is not the open country of Nebraska or New Mexico. It is the Pennsylvania countryside, which is the setting for the Olinger stories as well. Of the Farm, presents an action that occurs over a week end in the life of thirty five year old Joey Robinson in the year 1965. Joey Robinson, an advertising consultant visits his widowed mother over a weekend on her Eastern Pennsylvania farm in the company of his recently acquired second wife Peggy and her eleven year old son Richard. The main purpose of the visit is to give Joey’s ailing mother and his new wife a chance to know each other better. But the woven are alternatively hostile and friendly at times. Joey himself has to tangle not only with the females but also with the ghost of his dead father and his