Topic > An Ecocritical Perspective of Barbara Kingsolver's Flight Behavior

An Ecocritical Perspective of Barbara Kingsolver's Flight Behavior as a Clear Call on Climate ChangeAbstract: Ecocriticism is the study of literature and the environment from an interdisciplinary perspective, in which literary scholars analyze texts that illustrate environmental concerns and examine the various ways in which literature deals with the topic of nature. It gives humans a better understanding of nature. Barbara Kingsolver is an American writer, essayist and poet. She is a writer with a gift for telling compelling stories and creating interesting, lively characters. Raised in rural Kentucky, many of her books revolve around themes of rural life, nature, social justice, and biodiversity. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Flight Behavior, his esteemed novel is a clear example of his extreme concern for the natural world. In Flight Behavior Kingsolver creates a hypnotic comparison between the life journey of Dellarobia Turnbow, an unhappy housewife on the verge of cheating, and the migration of the monarch butterfly, a hypnotic but shocking effect of climate change. His ability to put silent, breathtakingly beautiful butterflies at the center of this disastrous and noisy debate is exceptionally brilliant. In this story, the survival techniques of monarch butterflies and that of a young Dellarobia woman are inextricably intertwined and analogous. The monarchs made a typical escape as floods and landslides led to falling trees everywhere in their usual resting place in Mexico. As a result they migrated to Feather Town to winter. Keywords: ecological criticism, climate change, migration, global warming, Cli-fi fiction. In the twenty-first century, climate change has emerged as a dominant theme in literature and, consequently, in literary studies. Its popularity in fiction has given rise to the term Cli-fi, or climate change fiction, and speculation that this constitutes a distinctive literary genre. Many thriving authors of literary fiction, such as Margaret Atwood, Ian Mc Ewan, Amitav Ghosh, Barbara Kingsolver, Lydia Millet, David Mitchell, Nathaniel Rich, Kim Stanley Robinson, Leslie Marmon Silko, Marcel Theroux..., have contributed to the efforts of this new genre to imagine the causes, effects and sensation of global warming. In Flight Behavior, drawing on both his Appalachian roots and his background in biology, Kingsolver delivers a passionate novel about the effects of global warming. The novel is set on the Appalachian sheep farm in Tennessee, surrounded by conservative rural farmers. These are the people who, in her opinion, are most affected by climate change and, surprisingly, are least prepared to understand and believe in climate change and its causes. The main problem of the novel is the ignorance of climate change and the ecocritical vision. Blindness to environmental changes, called “looking without seeing” (FB 52). Of course it is very difficult to believe in things you cannot see. We cannot see the melting of sea ice, the reduction of the ozone layer, the increase in carbon in the atmosphere. So it's hard to believe that the world beneath our feet could ever be different than it has always been. Human animals have a fundamental faith in certain kinds of continuity. It is difficult to convince ourselves that climate change due to globalization is an abstract future, rather than a threat and a reality. Barbara Kingsolver's Flight Behavior is a realist example ofsuccess of Cli-fi that directly addresses climate change. Kingsolver's extreme concern and appreciation for the natural world is evident in his novels. Flight Behavior visualizes one such sight upon the arrival of monarch butterflies in rural Tennessee as “otherworldly beauty…a vision of glory…a valley of lights…an ethereal wind, (FB 21).” Here he used butterflies not only for their symbolic beauty, but also to convey a strong message about climate change due to global warming. Flight Behavior investigates ecological issues and highlights the possible effects of global warming on monarch butterflies. Butterflies are obviously the symbol central of the novel. Monarch butterflies belong to the “Danaus family” (FB 165) is the only one, intelligent enough to seek fortune in a cold place, while all his relatives are tropical flies (FB 165). they are the only insects capable of flying great distances and even over oceans (FB 160). The lifespan of an individual monarch butterfly is on average six weeks, but they pass on their genes to their descendants, who complete the journey north. (FB 200). Flight Behavior celebrates the beauty of the Monarch species and expresses admiration for the extraordinary complexity and sophistication of the instincts that allow them to migrate thousands of miles between Mexico and Canada each year. Their annual trip to Mexico appears to eliminate poisoned milkweed, their only larval food, in order to keep the population healthy (FB 481). The monarchs who usually fly to Mexico, arrived in Feather Town during the winter due to landslides and floods that caused the destruction of trees and homes and massive climate change. The arrival of monarch butterflies has meant different things to different people depending on their interests. For Dellarobia it was a warning to turn away from his sinful life and start a new life, a symbol of resurrection. While for some they are an object of annoyance. For Bear and Hester Turnbow, Dellarobia's in-laws, the butterflies are a means to attract tourists and nature lovers through which they can raise money by introducing an entrance fee at the farm gate to see the Monarchs and pay off their debts. For the villagers they were a sign or rather a miracle from God. For media people like Tina Ultner the butterflies meant current and sensational talk about the town with which they could promote their channel and include their advertising. Kingsolver points out the lack of seriousness in nature conservation in Mr. Bear Town. It aims uncontrollably and destroys trees. Because he considers the forest as “merely trees” and not “treasure” to be preserved, so that it brings good rain for better cultivation. Besides that, he also planned to eliminate newly arrived visitors (the Monarchs) who intrude on the logging plan using pesticides (DDT). The severity of climate change is terrible. Kingsolver presents his readers with a glimpse of the deadly disaster that climate change can cause on people by telling the story of Josefina's family. Josefina is the only child of her parents. They are the Mexicans. Her father was a tour guide, Josefina says. “He takes people on horseback into the forest to see the monarchs… and my mother makes tamales for a lot of people” (FB 137). This is how his family made a living, working with butterflies and the people who came to see them. Josefina's family migrated to the town of Feather in search of survival due to dangerous mudslides and catastrophic flooding in the Mexican mountain town of Angangueo. Many people have died, thousands have lost their homes and means of transport).