Abstract
ABSTRACT Although Richard Powers’ novel The Overstory has received acclaim for depicting trees as intimately entangled with human lives, the novel denies trees a voice in the narrative. This paper argues that without being given a voice, trees are rendered objects and not moral subjects. While the novel has received acclaim as a political intervention, maintaining the object status for trees does not demand contemporary societies halt deforestation. In order to have a narrative that truly values trees, a completely different kind of novel would need to be written: one where trees can speak. I turn to two Anishinaabeg narratives to illustrate what such a narrative can look like.
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