The theme of nature in The Thorn Birds

Abstract

The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough (1937-2015) is one of the most popular Australian novels in Vietnam, which is mentioned in the curriculum of Australian Studies – a major of the Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City). In general, the themes which mainly attract readers’ attention are the great love story between Meggie Cleary – a beautiful, tough woman and Ralph de Bricassart – an ambitious Catholic priest, and (or) an inevitable tragedy resulted from the conflict between the love for God and that for man. However, exerting much focus on human relationships in The Thorn Birds makes it hard to see another important “figure” – nature – as well as the relationship between human and nature in the West of Australia, the main setting of the novel where the climate is harsh, unique and sometimes unpredictable. Since the theme of nature accounts for a large content of the novel, The Thorn Birds is likely to be an interesting subject to eco-critical studies. In this paper, from the perspective of ecocriticism, we try to point out how the theme of nature is treated in this novel, including how the figure of nature being depicted, how the human-nature relationship being dealt with and how nature is embracing human life and “telling” human stories. We also indicate the possible connection between literature and daily human life, and between a 1977 Australian novel which tells us the stories of the natural cycle, the bushfires, the imported animals, etc. and the unusual wildfires which occurred in this country at the beginning of the year 2020. In addition, by evaluating as a typical Australian novel from eco-critical perspectives, we hope to introduce a new approach to conduct research on Australian literature at the Department of Australian Studies and for other researches of literature major in the University.