NURTURE NATURE: AN ECOFEMINIST EXPLORATION OF ALICE WALKER’S NOW IS THE TIME TO OPEN YOUR HEART

In an epoch of escalating environmental exploitation, the existence of humanity is in crisis. The prosaic and disillusioned reality is that humans are estranged from the non-human world leading to the exploitation of nature. Traditional ethical perspectives are however anthropocentric and the other tellurians are quite often uncared for and unwept over. A strong parallelism exists between the oppression of women and the degradation of nature. Patriarchy considers women and nature as objects to be subdued and controlled. Now is the Time to Open Your Heart explores Alice Walker’s perception neither strictly feminist nor environmentalist but a combination of these two aspects, namely the ecofeminist. This paper offers an ecofeminist reading of Alice Walker’s Now is the Time to Open Your Heart.