Interactions of Human and Environment: An Ecological Reading of Joyce Carol Oates’ The Falls
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: This paper investigates the manner in which Joyce Carol Oates in her novel, The Falls, mercilessly exposes the ecological crisis and other issues that have arisen as a result of economic development by interweaving the fictional story with the real-life environmental controversy that is currently taking place in the United States. The study focuses on Oates’ admission of economic development’s physical impact in the novel. Economic development degrades local ecosystem and harms most locals’ health. It also examines Niagara Falls’ social and political issues related to economic growth. Capitalist development creates political and judicial inequities. This novel investigates how economic development harms its characters. The novel explores the ecological and social illnesses caused by American progress. But it shows the terrible and cruel side of the growth machine, which pushes progress at the expense of environmental damage, social darkness, and spiritual decline. A deeper socio-ecological crisis and injustice are depicted in the narrative. It shows the dangers of chemical and radioactive environmental contaminants, the victimisation of Niagara inhabitants, and the rulers’ social evil in American economic prosperity. According to degrowth and ecocritical perspectives, capitalistic development harms individual happiness. The study also examines how Oates dramatizes nature in the novel and how humans and the environment interact in her narrative.
Authors: M. Vanitha, SP. Shanthi
Institution: Annamalai University
Language: English
Subfield: Literature and Literary Theory
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W7214944916