论费尼莫尔·库柏在《拓荒者》中的环保意识(英文)

Fenimore Cooper's Environment Protection Consciousness in The Pioneers

《拓荒者》是美国早期小说家詹姆斯.费尼莫尔·库柏的《皮裹腿故事集》中的第一部。从结构、情节和语言等诸多因素来看,它称不上是一部优秀小说。但小说却受到广大读者的喜爱,并使作者一举成名。究其原因,主要是库柏在小说中探讨了较为深刻的社会问题,环境保护就是其中之一。库柏在小说中表达了其强烈的环保意识。他不但深刻地揭露了美国拓荒者在开发边疆的过程中对自然资源的极大浪费和破坏,而且还通过自然主义者那提.班波和环境保护者腾普尔法官这两位人物,就如何保护自然资源提出了自己的看法。在"发展就是硬道理"的美国边疆开发时代,库柏的所为确实需要极大的勇气。

The Pioneers by James Fenimore Cooper was the first of the most famous series of novel in American literature,the Leather-Stocking Tales.Judged from the perspectives of organization,plot and language,however,Cooper＇s The Pioneers could not be classified as a good novel.What made the novel well-known and its author famous was the writer＇s discussion of some very serious issues.In the novel,Cooper showed a strong consciousness of environment protection.He exposed the wastefulness of the pioneers and suggested two ways of protecting the environment through two characters： Natty Bumppo and Judge Temple,who held the views of a naturalist and a conservationist respectively.In an age when conquering and developing the wilderness were the leading theme and when the myth of superabundance was still prevalent,to discuss the serious issues like environmental protection surely did not fit the then social trend and it demanded big courage.