Buck and Woman: Victims of the Same Arrow in Oates’s Story “The Buck”

Toya Nath Upadhyay, Raj Kumar Gurung

Abstract

In the contemporary Anthropocene, humans measure the value of materials, animals, and plants based on their benefits. Their self-centric presence in nature has severely threatened biodiversity and the climate. This study reads Carol Joyce Oates’s short story “The Buck” to examine how it portrays emerging ecological threats. The story introduces two human characters—Wayne Kunz, a hunter, and Melanie Snyder, an ecologically conscientious person. Kunz has a thirst for animals, and he has ferocious hunting skills. A buck is shot with an arrow and wounded. Snyder attempts to save it but loses her life in the injury caused by the buck’s antler. Finally, both will face untimely death. The study raises a question: Why does the juxtaposition of two diametrically opposing views of humans toward the same animal suggest this? While analyzing the text drawing on the theoretical concepts from ecofeminism, the study finds that the author juxtaposes two antithetical views of humans to make a sharp critique of androcentric ideology, which has been the root cause of the harms to both living and non-living beings. Activities like that of Kunz have become serious threats to ecological sustenance. The study argues that it is necessary to control behaviors like those of Kunz and promote behaviors like those of Snyder. Finally, this study expects to contribute to developing a favorable human-nature nexus for sustainable ecology. 

 

Keywords: Animal rights, Ecocriticism, Ecofeminism, Hunting

 

DOI: https://doi.org/10.55463/hkjss.issn.1021-3619.64.23


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References


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