A Study of Ecological Ethics in Ursula Le Guin’s The Word for the World is Forest

Guin’s (1972) The Word for the World Is Forest was written when the social awareness against all forms of dystopian values such as rational dualistic values, patriarchal hierarchy, anthropocentric instrumentality, and all forms of oppression and exploitation was promoted by modern ecological movements and the new wave of feminism in the 1960s and 1970s. Guin’s speculative novella challenges the above-mentioned dystopian values and suggests an ecological ethics which include principles such as  respect, care, love, mutuality, friendship, interdependency, equality, freedom, solidarity , responsibility, and the interrelationship between man and nature; it recognizes the differences and diversity of all the living and nonliving members of nature. To reach these ethical principles human beings need undergo a fundamental change and transformation in their way of thinking and their belief system all in all, which will result in a healthy society and ecosystem and a better place for life for the members of nature. This paper is a study of such a strategy in Guin’s (1972) The Word for the World Is Forest by benefiting from the theories set forth by ecofeminist philosophers Warren (2000), Plumwood (1993), and Merchant (1990) to show how the writer manifests the patterns of domination and oppression of nature and what kind of ecological ethics are emphasized in order to help man save life on Earth.