The Integrity of Human and Nature
——— An Analysis of Gone with the Wind from the Perspective of Eco-feminism
It’s generally accepted that Gone with the Wind is a popular novel except a few people thought it is not worth reading. Due to some controversial problems had been discussed in the book so the novel was neglected for a long time by critics, such as its descriptions of the black, of the reconstruction after the war and of ku klux klan and so on. However, Donald W. Miller praised the book as a great epic which influences a number of people of different generations and nations. Recently people come to realize there is something significant behind the big work so that more and more people are addressing themselves to study it from many perspectives.
Firstly, there are some essays about the relationship between Margaret Mitchell and Scarlett. Carolyn Gage, described a true-life Mitchell who suffered great grief after her fiancé’s death and then got flash marriage to a bootlegger which took her little happiness, later, even though she enjoyed a fast pace of life she could not escape the stigma of her gender, so when Mitchell reinvested herself in the novel she rewrote life the way she thought it should have been, therefore, she created a right man instead of the dashing and sexually charismatic alcoholic. In this way, Gage concluded that Mitchell’s writing purpose was to reveal the delusion of female life and escape from her shadowy preceding life, so Gage appealed that females should not live in dream under the patriarchal society, but take Scarlett for example, to live in present and pursue what they need.
Secondly, female consciousness of tomorrow catches people’s attention. Luo Minyu considered Scarlett’s consciousness of tomorrow as a kind of expectation: expecting the equality between men and women, a peaceful world and happy homeland and a true love.
Thirdly, another popular topic is the comparison between Scarlett and some females in other works, such as Jane Eyre or Wang Xifeng. Zhai Xu compared Scarlett and Wang Xifeng and thought that they were a typical paragon of feminism who possessed the awareness of Women’s Awakening; both were brave, strong-minded, independent and rebellious against the restrictions which set against the females by the society of their own time. Fourth, the Tara Theme is also noticeable, and Vicki L. Eaklor pointed out that “Tara Theme” was the story’s musical leitmotif as Tara was repeated frequently in the novel and it was Scarlette’s spiritual pillar. The war destroys Scarlett’s family as well as her happy life, but it did not defeat Scarlett as she had Tara beside her which gave her strength, every time she got into trouble she turned to Tara for comfort and encouragement, while Tara had trouble, Scarlett safeguarded it by all means.
Besides, a majority of professors analyzed the novel from the perspective of feminism. Both Gu Shaoyang and Wang Yanli acclaimed the novel was a great one, not only because it reflected female’s self-awareness, especially after the war broken out and women had to go out to realize their economic independence, but also because it confirmed women’s contribution to the society, praised their fraternity, selflessness and rebellious spirit, and revealed the belief that women should be liberated from families. Wu Shijuan and Xie Jingzhi also thought that Scarlett was a heroic female since she dared to break the traditional prejudice that “females are inferior to males”. She was brave enough to walk out of the house and entered into the “patriarchy’s world” and competed against the men for her economic independence. In Liu Xiaoyong’s essay, he pointed out that Scarlett was increasingly maturing and in the end became a Southern new woman with strong feminist leanings along with the advance of war and industrialization. When it comes to Zhou Yaming, he deeply analyzed Scarlett’s struggle, success and failure and her psychical conflict in her pursuit of material and love, and then he put forward that Rhett, one of the representatives of male, his leaving possibly meant the male’s loss to conquer female; meanwhile, Scarlett suffered great loss: she lost her true love and happy life. And in the game no one won. Therefore, Zhou concluded that this complex bisexual relationship reflected Mitchell’s desire, rebel, conquer and regression toward male, and her wish of a harmony bisexual relationship.
In addition, some critics tried to analyze the novel from the perspective of eco-feminism, which studies the close relationship between female and nature. This is a most novel and interesting way to analyze the book. Zhen Jigen generalized that Tara and the lumber mill were the resources for Scarlett’s eco-feminism, in which it was not the male who conquered and oppressed the land as well as conquered the female, but a young lady who called Scarlett conquered the land and men’s will, as Scarlett unexpectedly disobeyed her second husband’s will to operate the lumber mill and proved rather successfully; when she came back to Tara during the war she could manage the plantation without the help of man and finally possessed the supreme dominion. So Zhen concluded that these behaviors were a good match with the ecofeminist’s opinion, that female and nature were linked together in the term of creating and maintaining life, and natural process abode by female principles of motile creativity, diversity, integrity, sustainability and sanctity of life. When it came to Cao Peihong, she focused on the three kinds of links between nature and women. First link was a symbolic one which stated women’s “naturalized” and nature’s “feminized”; second one was the experiential link about the hardships and humiliation suffered by women and nature in patriarchal societies; third one was about females and nature’ status link which embodied in females’ folly and nature’ identification as the field and background of human activities. Then she discussed in detail about their mutual dependence —— females were caretakers of nature while nature was the haven for females. Take house (which was an important part of nature according to eco-feminist) for example, Cao acclaimed women playing a great role in managing the house and plantation before, during and after the war; and the reasons why women were willing to commit any kind of sacrifice lied in houses’ illustration of women’s beauty and traits, as houses were the place for women to convey their feeling through the order and decorations and furniture; but the most important thing was women had a deep love for those dwellings, in a word, houses as well as nature were haven for women in hard time.
To sum up, the above critical reviews on Gone with the Wind may represent the major achievements of the studies of this novel in the recent decades. These studies have effectively advanced the exploration of the novel, broadened readers’ vision as well as deepened readers’ comprehension of it. The eco-feminism theory sums up early scholars’ two separate topic of feminism and Tara Theme, and then analyzes the novel from a new way which links nature and female together. However, the essays of eco-feminism only use the theory to analyze Scarlett’s eco-feminism thoughts and her relative manifestations, in the novel it appears as Scarlett’s deep attachment to Tara and her every endeavor to protect it from being destroyed, in turn, Tara is her spiritual pillar which will help her come through every difficulty. But the purpose and significance of the eco-feminism have not been further exposited. On the one hand, the reason why Scarlett tried her best to strive for more rights and final say was not only to satisfy her vanity but to be as free as men and to be treated equally as men. On the other hand, the purpose of eco-feminism is not to establish a society where female are at last over or conquer male, but pursue the balance between female and male, human and nonhuman nature, especially nowadays, due to many reasons, women haven’t fully displayed their talents to better the world which suffers the crises of ecological environment and threat of wars, which shows the relationship between nature and human beings is not so harmonious.
Therefore, in this thesis, the eco-feministic point of view will be used to figure out the close relationship between female and nature in the novel to encourage the society especially the patriarchy-centered society to treat feminism seriously and respect them; to encourage the feminists to care for the ecology, and to do more by their strength to be against wars in the world since wars destroy the lands and kill people which both belong to the nature；to encourage the society to build a new environment where female and male, human and nonhuman nature are equal and harmonious.
撰写文献综述步骤：
1、搜索相关文献
2、评价来源
3、识别主题、辩论和差距
4、概述结构
5、写文献综述
论文综述范文写法如下：
1、标题
文献综述的标题一般多是在设计（论文）选题的标题后加“文献综述”字样。
2、提要或前言
此部分一般不用专设标题，而是直接作为整个文献综述的开篇部分。内容是简要介绍本课题研究的意义；将要解决的主要问题；如果本课题涉及到较前沿的理论，还应对该理论进行简要介绍；最后要介绍研究者搜集的资料范围及资料来源。
3、正文
这是论文文献综述的核心部分。应在归类整理的基础上，对自己搜集到的有用资料进行系统介绍。
撰写此部分时还应注意以下两点：
其一、对已有成果要分类介绍，各类之间用小标题区分。
其二、既要有概括的介绍，又要有重点介绍。根据自己的分类，对各类研究先做概括介绍，然后对此类研究中具有代表性的成果进行重点介绍。
4、总结
对上述研究成果的主要特点、研究趋势及价值进行概括与评价。此部分应着重点明本课题已有的研究基础（已有成果为自己的研究奠定了怎样的基础或从中受到怎样的启发）与尚存的研究空间（本课题已有研究中存在的空白或薄弱环节）。
5、参考文献
要求列出的参考文献不少于15篇，且外文文献不少于3篇，并按论文中的参考文献的格式将作者名、文献名、文献出处、时间等信息全面标示出来。
对某一领域，某一专业或某一方面的课题、问题或研究专题搜集大量相关资料，然后通过阅读、分析、归纳、整理当前课题、问题或研究专题的最新进展、学术见解或建议。
文献综述是在确定了选题后，在对选题所涉及的研究领域的文献进行广泛阅读和理解的基础上，对该研究领域的研究现状（包括主要学术观点、前人研究成果和研究水平、争论焦点、存在的问题及可能的原因等）。
新水平、新动态、新技术和新发现、发展前景等内容进行综合分析、归纳整理和评论，并提出自己的见解和研究思路而写成的一种不同于毕业论文的文体。
它要求作者既要对所查阅资料的主要观点进行综合整理、陈述，还要根据自己的理解和认识，对综合整理后的文献进行比较专门的、全面的、深入的、系统的论述和相应的评价，而不仅仅是相关领域学术研究的“堆砌”。
在综述的引言（或者导言、介绍）部分要写清以下内容：
(1)首先要说明写作的目的，定义综述主题、问题和研究领域。
(2)指出有关综述主题已发表文献的总体趋势，阐述有关概念的定义。
(3)规定综述的范围、包括专题涉及的学科范围和时间范围，必须声明引用文献起止的年份，解释、分析和比较文献以及组织综述次序的准则。
(4)扼要说明有关问题的现况或争论焦点，引出所写综述的核心主题，这是广大读者最关心而又感兴趣的，也是写作综述的主线。
