A Look Of Ecofeminism In Alice Walker’s Meridian And The Temple Of My Familiar With A Focus On Eco-Linguistics

Abstract

The focus point of this paper is to study the eco-feministic aspects highlighting eco-linguistics in Alice Walker’s Meridian and The Temple of My Familiar. Ecofeminism is the male ownership of land and women leading to a dominant culture (patriarchy) and an activist movement displaying human-nature clash. Ecofeminists say the degradation of nature adds to the degradation of women. Feminist Environmental Justice campaigner Vandana Shiva stated that women-nature relationship is to sustain life.Eco linguistics is a termfor approaches that investigate language and various kinds of interaction that will help the readers understand the importance of saving nature and culture. In the select two novels, Meridian and The Temple of My FamiliarAlice Walker’s perspectives of ecofeminism are based on the life she has lived, the relationships she has experienced, and the people she has grown up with. Walker finds consolation in nature’s refuge as she negotiated the burdens of her life. Walker sees her mother as a “goddess” and “the most sincere worshipper of nature”. As did her mother the “ecological ancestors” before her have had worshipped nature and the African Americans retained their sense of “ecological belonging”. Meridian deals with her own story who wishes to change the plight of black women who are often seen as baby-producing machinesand the protagonist Meridian struggled to overcome poverty, old customs and practices that enslave women. The Temple of my Familiar deals with several ‘black women’ who have been cut off from health and harmony with the Earth by poverty, slavery, and the theft of their lands.