THE DICHOTOMY OF MOTHER EARTH AND FATHERLAND IN THE WANDERGROUND AND THE CLEFT

Abstract

This study examines the relationship between women and nature in Doris Lessing's The Cleft and Sally Miller Gearhart's The Wanderground using a gender and ecofeminist lens. Women's oppression is analogous to nature's oppression. Therefore, this article shows how a patriarchal (or male-dominated) society treats both nature and women and how the society standards unfairly dominate both. Both writers Sally Miller Gearhart and Doris Lessing argue that women and the environment, including (animals) are crucial to ecofeminism studies and practice; women may solve gender issues only by utilizing natural materials. The present article depicts women in both novels learning the causes of every piece of sorrow they experience in life. As a result, they attempt to escape the machismo society and create a nature-filled utopia (devoid of males). Although some women continue to live with men, they always opt for separation. Finally, this work shows how Gearhart's utopia is the outcome and redemption of The Cleft’s dystopia.