Ecocritic
Jen Sheng: The Root of Life. I am truly surprised to say that I actually enjoyed reading Jen Sheng: The Root of Life. I felt the novel had a touch of romance and that is what kept me reading. The book is about a Russian scientist who is in search of finding meaning in his life, which leads him to the mountains of Siberia. There he meets a wise Chinese man whom he befriends and with whom he develops a very close relationship. The Chinese man who 's name is Lu Wen, is a wise medicinal man who believes in the supernatural powers of the "Jen Sheng" and is in search of the root of life. With the help and knowledge of the Chinese man the Russian sets himself in search of his own "Jen Sheng." During his search of his "Jen Sheng" the Russian man begins to appreciate the beauty of nature, which in my opinion transforms his thinking into an ecoritic. An ecoritic believes that humans have a connection to nature and are continuously questioning the roles, representation or the values that nature and humans have with each other. I was introduced to the Russian 's ecocritism side in chapter four when he states "all that I had learned about nature from books-that things were separate and distinct, that men were men, and animals only animals, plants and stones had no souls..my book learning suddenly became meaningless."(Walton and Gibbons pg36) His enlightenment is a perfect example of what ecoritics believe. He found beauty and significance in the nature that surrounded him in that remote area of Siberia. Both men admired nature in the same way, which inspired them to develop a deer sanctuary with resulted into an antler business. I found the Russian 's ecocritic side extremely endearing. His passion for nature was reflected in his language, when he described the animals and humans there was always a comparison to nature. Example 's of his ecoritic language was used to describe the physical features of the Chinese man, "his skin had an earthen tinge..skin which was
Bibliography: Prishvin, Mikhail. Jen Sheng: The Root of Life. New York: G.P Putnam 's Sons 1936