A text will always show its true beliefs, influences, culture, and ideology beyond the words on the page or images on a screen. It is impossible to avoid this fact; the clues always exist. Yes, the information in the words of a text is important. But we must teach students to look more fully and to question more incisively into a text if they are to become more critical readers who approach texts with confidence and agency. We must go beyond a surface-level inquiry of What is the text saying?—an inquiry that assumes the text is a perfect vessel containing a useful truth—and teach students to instead ask, What is the text showing? The difference between saying and showing is an important one: it is the difference between reading passively and reading critically; between reading for the right answer and reading for a larger meaning. We must stop indoctrinating students in the search for the right answer and instead teach students how to engage with texts in an informed, inquisitive, and holistic way. From the understanding that all texts are created within the boundaries of time, space, culture, and ideology, students can ask, What is this text showing me?
A suggested Reading Response is outlined below.
Ecocriticism
- How is nature presented in this text?
- How is nature empowered or oppressed in this work?
- What parallels can you draw between the suffering and oppression of groups of people (women, specific cultures, immigrants, etc.) and the treatment of the land?
Introducing This Reading Response to Students
Most students are acutely aware of—and worried about—climate change. They see stories about climate change on the news, and they see the various weather events that happen around the world on a daily basis. Today’s young people are intellectually aware of humans’ dependence on the world and the world’s dwindling resources.
At the same time, they are perhaps less connected to nature than past generations. The proliferation of smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, and earbuds provides us with a means of constant detachment from our surroundings.
Helping students notice nature, and the role of nature, in a text will help them tune in more fully to both their own lives and the pressing conflict of climate change. Examining nature in texts (both older and recent) will give students an understanding of how we got to our current ecological predicament as well as an understanding of our human drive to save nature and ourselves.
As with the other categories, this category asks students to go a step beyond merely noticing and identifying. A society’s treatment of nature in a text (or in real life) often parallels its treatment of its marginalized groups. Helping students see these connections will help them see the larger picture of how a society operates and what its deepest values are. This, in turn, will help them think more critically in their daily lives about our world and where we are headed.
To introduce this category, a short story, article, or poem could provide a vivid background about the presence of nature and its role in different scenarios. Students could also explore Sustainable Development Goal 13 (Climate Action), 14 (Life Below Water), or 15 (Life on Land) from the United Nations’ SDGs website. Texts that illuminate the connection between environmental issues and the oppression of groups of people will also illustrate the larger possibilities of this category.
Student Examples
Ecocriticism for The Giver, by Tyler (grade 10)
In The Giver, ecocriticism is evident in the way nature is presented in the text. As Jonas reflects, “The snow was so beautiful, and he wanted to feel the cold that would come with it, to experience the freshness of winter” (Lowry, 29). This quote showcases the beauty of nature and how Jonas yearns to experience it despite the restrictions of the society he lives in. This highlights the oppression of nature by the society, as the citizens are unable to experience the beauty and freedom of the natural world. This oppression of nature reflects the oppression of people in the novel, as the citizens are denied the right to experience emotions and freedom of thought. The Giver reveals the parallels between the sufferings and oppression of people and treatment of the land, and shows how both are subject to manipulation and control by the larger institutions. This furthermore demonstrates how nature can be a powerful force, and how its oppression can lead to both emotional and physical suffering. [TEXT: LOWRY 1993]
Ecocriticism for Flush, by John (grade 10)
In Flush, Hiaasen uses the environment as an important setting, almost an additional character. The main character, Noah Underwood, helps stop a casino operator from illegally dumping sewage in the Florida Keys. The natural beauty and environment of the Keys provides a backdrop in which Noah and his family, natives of the Keys, grow closer and stop the environmental crimes. Nature is presented as a hero, and something to be protected at all costs, even if it means committing a crime. As Noah’s dad tells him, he is “not sorry for what he did” (p. 1) when he sank the casino boat to stop the illegal dumping. The environment also represents the difference between the classes and groups of people in the Keys. Even though the Underwoods have less money, they will protect that environment. That behavior and devotion to the environment is contrasted with the crass, out-of-towner business man who just wants to make money, even if it is polluting the water and killing local creatures. [TEXT: HIAASEN 2005]
First, Respond to the Student
Both students touched upon the idea of larger institutions controlling nature and, through that, controlling people. While this is a fascinating analysis, it also has the potential to lead into discussions that might be personal, politically charged, or even fatalistic. Rather than swaying the conversation by adding in my own personal opinions, I encouraged the students to connect some of the dots for themselves.
Then, Develop Critical Consciousness
Helping students recognize the connections between the control and abuse of nature and the control and abuse of people will prepare them for fuller discussions about our world as they become adults. Determining the agents of this control—and how all humans are connected to these “larger institutions,” as Tyler referred to them—will help students imagine how they might contribute to ecological solutions in our world rather than inadvertently participate in its destruction. They may even be able to create solutions at an institutional level. And John’s connection to class issues hits at the heart of the matter, as we’ve seen in the news about drinking water in Flint, Michigan, the loss of homes and life from Hurricanes Katrina and Maria, and the disproportionate ill effects of air pollution on the poor in urban areas. John touched upon an important point here. I asked him if he could think of any news stories from real life that revealed the connection between class and the environment. I asked John if capitalism must be at odds with the environment, or if it is possible to make money and preserve the environment.
Question for Further Thinking
