Introduction
Eden is a garden, a place outside time and space, non-existent geographically or historically. It is a symbol of the primordial Earth and has great significance not only in religion and mythology. The story of the Garden of Eden has, for centuries, shaped Western culture and influenced the American world. In Merchant’s view, this myth has been a driving force behind people’s attempt to reclaim Eden by turning the desert into a garden, enslaving the land with the tools of capitalism and industrialization.
Discussion
Visions of a lost Eden, such as the voyage of Christopher Columbus, John Steinbeck’s search for the sources of happiness, and East Eden, have motivated global exploration, settlement, and hope for a better life. According to Merchant, shopping malls, the “new Main Street,” gated residential complexes, and the Internet are the latest visions of a reinvented Eden (Merchant 34). The narrative approach raises the question of the correspondence between stories and reality. Great successes have been achieved in the struggle of many peoples for survival and the facilitation of life (Cronon 78). There is also a reality in the story of the decline of Eden. The ecological crisis and its connection with over-development, population, consumption, pollution, and scarcity are critical problems facing all of humanity. Through these contrasting stories, one can see both progress and decline in different places at different times.
The story of the Resurrection of Eden has become a significant narrative in Western culture. It is perhaps the most important myth people have invented to understand our relationship with the Earth and nature. Science, technology, and capitalism have provided the tools, and humanity has provided the power and momentum. Today’s incarnations of Eden are suburbs, shopping malls, clones, and the World Wide Web. Yet, as in any popular history, the counternarrative challenges history. Recent postmodern and postcolonial histories deny the progress of Enlightenment thought (Merchant 23). Many environmentalists see the loss of nature as a transition from untouched land to a paved, scorched, parched, dying world. Many feminists believe that nature, once revered as motherhood, has been tainted, desecrated, and deplored and that women have been victims of patriarchal culture.
Likewise, many African Americans and Native Americans view their history as a history of European colonization, when they “explored,” “discovered,” and seized power. They thought their bodies looked like animals and were close to nature. History is built into the overarching meta-narrative of healing. Both storylines, ascending and descending, require readers to discover new histories for their 21-year-old century. In the author’s view, the new science of chaos and complexity reinforces the role of natural forces in environmental history and forces humanity to rethink its ethical relationship with nature (Merchant 19).
The new science urges people to think of themselves as partners in the human world. The author claims that people must think of ourselves not as a dominant nature or a nature that dominates people but as a dynamic relationship with nature (Merchant 15). The new perspective on the history of the relationship between man and nature is that real peace can be achieved by understanding the idea of instability, the complexity of history, nature as an actor, and humanity as an individual new ethic of partnership with nonhumans.
The destruction of nature in America became evident at the end of the nineteenth century. Railroads, steam engines, factories, and mines began to destroy forests and pollute landscapes, air, and water. They began to tell a new story of what had gone wrong-the story of the demise of pristine nature (Cronon 79). The first conservation movements sought to restore both nature and humanity by preserving places of pristine beauty. But new parks, modern suburbs, and garden cities paid the price for restoring nature. These places in Eden displaced the “others,” people of different classes and colors who did not fit in (Merchant 25). Green landscaping became a cover for the actual decay of the land and the neglect of its poor. This false green consciousness desired redemption for all people.
The middle class exploited wildlife at the expense of others, creating national parks in their native places. Poor minorities flourished in the new suburbs, living in polluted wells, blackened slums, and toxic landfills. Today, many people of color recall a past similar to Eden’s before slavery and colonization changed their lives forever. The story of Eden’s invention, told by progressives and environmentalists, raises fundamental questions about the viability of restoration history itself (Cronon 69).
They ask the following questions: doesn’t the Earth and its people need new stories? What will “green justice” look like for the Earth and humanity? Whose purpose do we serve? (Merchant 15). Both modern progressive and abdicative stories are compelling but flawed. They are the product of the linear approach of modern scientific thought and reflect the opposite polarities of “self” and “other”.
Conclusion
Thus, the author claims that the myth of Eden has greatly influenced the humanity’s violent attitude to the nature. The researcher provides possibilities for alternatives to domination based on a partnership between humanity and nature. She proposes an environmental ethic based on a partnership between humans and the nonhuman world. Rather than being either dominators or victims, people would cooperate with nature and each other in healthier, more just, and more environmentally sustainable ways. The author shows how complex interconnections can weave humanity into cyclical melodies and envelop us within new enigmatic, sacred tales.
Work Cited
Cronon, William. Uncommon Ground : Rethinking the Human Place in Nature. W.W. Norton & Co, 1996, pp. 69–90.
Merchant, Carolyn. Reinventing Eden. Routledge, 2013.