The Impact of Place on Personality in Kazuo Ishiguro’s A Pale View of Hills: An Eco-critical Study

Abstract

This study uses the ecocritical approach to examine the place’s impact on personalities in Ishiguro’s (1954- ) first novel A Pale View of Hills (1982). The research is based on the major tenets that have been elicited by some ecocritical figures. First, the paper throws light on the fact that a certain place has the power to define and direct the characters’ feelings and thoughts. In other words, it is an attempt to portray the interconnectedness of place with characters. Then, it clarifies that the physical setting is more than just a mere stage to be performed on. The study also analyzes the link between man’s essence and his/her surroundings. Next, it tries to probe beneath the fact: how the experience of displacement and dislocation has impacted the writer, his fiction, and the main characters. In addition to the emotional disturbance, the study also highlights the consequences of displacement on the characters. Afterward, the research sheds light on the human’s reciprocal relationship with the land. The study raises these questions: how do people view cities and countryside? Are they affecting the characters similarly? Most importantly, how are people’s life and death linked with their surrounding environment? The research points out that stronger forces, outside ourselves, determine who/what we are. Moreover, it focuses on the place’s power to make people nostalgic about their past. Later, it ascertains what is meant by the concept of “ur-place” and “territoriality”; also how a certain place can be a land to attain man’s unattainable dreams. It is worth mentioning, this study promotes ecocriticism, which is one of the most humanitarian science and literary approach. Last but not least, it also aims to shift the people’s concern and consciousness toward the places’ significance and urges them to change their perspective to the surrounding environment, practically.