The Comparison Between Select Ecocritical Texts
By analysing the text in terms of ecocriticism enables us to keep the ecological principles as a model for thinking about how literature functions. When we look deeper into the text, the extreme levels of becoming a ‘vegan' from boycotting any product made out of animals to that of going naked and imagining herself to be a tree, the text is extremely ecocentric. Some of the famous ecocritical texts are J.M Costello’s 'Elizabeth Costello', David Foster Wallace's 'Consider the Lobster', Michael Pollan's 'The Omnivore Dilemma'.
Consider the Lobster and Other Essays is writer by novelist David Foster Wallace in 2004. Consider the Lobster talks about the Maine Lobster Festival that generated some controversy among the readers of the culinary magazine. This particular essay is concerned with the ethics of boiling a creature alive in order to enhance the consumer's pleasure. It also discusses about the lobster sensory neurons. Wallace emphasizes that no amount of lobster paraphernalia and clever marketing strategies can divert him from the serious question, ' Is it right to boil a sentient creature alive just for our gustatory pleasure? Wallace not only talks about lobsters but every carnivorous creatures that suffer under the hands of the human. He wants the readers to draw their own conclusions and to focus on the fact that every living organism has the sense of pain.
The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals is written by Michael Pollan in 2006. In this book, he discusses about what we should have for dinner because of the enormous choices of food habits we fail to eat that is healthy. We became a slave for our desires and tastes. With the help of cultural influences this particular dilemma was resolved primarily. The development of the technology has made even seasonal foods available throughout the year and when we rely on them, we would be forced to get on to unhealthy means of food habits. Pollan also discusses about the large-scale farms and food processing outfits that largely satisfy surging demand for organic food., using Whole Foods as a proxy. The author says that even though they claim it to be organic and healthy, we still can't blindly trust them because the 'free-range' chicken on offer, it turns out, hails from a confinement operation with a tiny yard, largely unused by the short-lived birds. The main thing that he focuses is the unrealistic pastoral narrative where people get the false idea that, by definition, organic products come from picturesque open pastures. Pollan gives a concluding remark that if we were once again aware of the source of our food- what is was, where it came from, how it traveled to reach us, and it's true cost- we would see that we ' eat by the grace of nature, not industry'.
In Elizabeth Costello, the Australian writer Laureate J.M. Coetzee travels around the world and gives lectures on various topics regarding the protection of animals. All the above mentioned texts try to combine literature and environment. With literature as a tool, various ecocritics with less or more writing skill come up with exciting pieces of literary texts to create awareness among people to love nature and the duty to protect the fauna of Earth.
In conclusion, its not just the animals those are killed brutally, the flora is also destroyed due to various factors like globalisation, industrialisation, deforestation and also due to natural disasters. It is the need of the hour to protect the wildlife of our country and to help them live in a sustainable environment. The extreme effects of global warming cause the release of toxic gases to the atmosphere thereby reducing the quality of the air. This in turn would cause various effects health issues. Texts like these are an eye opener to the society. In each and every page of theses text one can find the cries of millions of animals.
