【浅析《啊，拓荒者！》中的天人和谐】天人和谐

　　摘要：《啊，拓荒者！》是薇拉凯瑟笔下最成功的几部小说之一。作者花很大篇幅来突出阐释人与自然的冲突与和谐，其中又以频繁使用拟人手法为特点。本文将分析作者在创作过程中运用拟人手法来强调天人对立与和谐的理念。
　　关键词：啊，拓荒者，拟人，和谐，人，自然
　　Ⅰ.Introduction
　　The O,Pioneer!,by Willa Cather,has substantially reflected an significant aspect of the relationship between man and wildness during the grand event of Westward Movement,which has played a indispensable role in her works and has also involved the subject of the personification exercised between lines in order to better demonstrate the topic of controversial communication between the man-made community and the natural one.This topic is mainly delivered by the following points.
　　Ⅱ.Analysis of personification employed to highlight the conflict and harmony between human and nature in the novel
　　1.The personification applied in the conflict
　　From the very beginning,the farmland is endowed with human personality by the devoted authoress,revealing the delicately resistant and rebellious character of the land.As for this,there is no shortage of vivid examples.
　　“But the great fact was the land itself,which seemed to overwhelm the little beginnings of human society that struggled in its somber wastes.It was from facing this vast hardness that the boys mouth had become so bitter; because he felt that men were too weak to make any mark here,that the land wanted to be let alone,to preserve its own fierce strength,its peculiar,savage kind of beauty,its uninterrupted mournfulness.” This is the reflection of the Alexandras brother,Oscar,who is always prepared to complain about the dreadful weather and earth that seem to torture him deliberately and mercilessly.Alexandra is the heroine of the story and is always indulging herself in the inexhaustible and profound hope for the coming harvest and prosperity.
　　In the above extract,with the help of words and phrases such as “overwhelm”,“wanted to be let alone”,“preserve its own fierce strength” and “its uninterrupted mournfulness”,Cather has successfully endowed the objective and lifeless land with human-like temper and preference,presenting a lively and brisk image of the almighty nature.The land has its own tastes and habits,used to living in its original and simple style which,from the very beginning of life,has guaranteed the peace and steady progress of itself.Springs bursting out here and there,brooks warbling on the rocky bottoms,some locusts buzzing in the grass,several yellow warblers chattering on the branches,what a picture nature has provided for us! However,with the gradual evolution and development of human civilization,the forests and prairies are intruded by human beings.The wilderness is occupied by numerous farmlands; the rivers are polluted by various chemicals; the forests are cut down for new houses and furniture; the wild animals are hunted for dinner.The almighty nature has endured too much for what us human beings have cast upon her.Year after year,she just makes no mention about her bitterness and misery which she has put up with and still expects her sons and daughters to recognize the destruction and crime the children have committed from the very beginning of their prosperity.Whats more,they failed to notice the harm caused by their own hands to their always tolerant mother.Increasingly,the mother tends to be harsh,showing no sympathy and making no compromise.She gets enough of the negligence and indifference from the greedy children and has to take some decisive measures to teach them a lesson.Gradually,the weather and everything else turn against the poor human and the harvest is becoming an illusive image in the memory.For they have not shown enough respect to the nature,they have to pay the debt and learn the lesson.Now,the land wants to be alone! What an impressive strike the nature has made to the rash pioneers and to us readers as well.