BUTTERFLIES INVASION: METAPHOR FOR PERVASIVE ENVIRONMENTAL DISORDER IN BARBARA KINGSOLVER’S FLIGHT BEHAVIOR

Abstract

The environmental grassroots activists and the creative writers have been consistent with the crusade to change the way people perceive and treat the environment, as they have shown commitment to exposing the factors that keep the human relationships with the environment and the health of the environment in great dangers. This article, however, examines Barbara Kingsolver’s Flight Behavior, and it probes the ecological implication of butterflies’ invasion in the novel. The theory of eco-criticism is used to foreground the study while an eco-critical method is adopted in the analysis. The study shows that the sudden relocation of the swarm of butterflies in the novel is an ominous sign of climate change which portends great biological dangers to every species in the natural environment. It is the view of the writer that natural phenomena like butterflies and birds can be relied upon in making projections of the environment. The analysis also reveals that man is not the only creature that suffers under severe ecological degradation; animals are equally caught in the same web. This shows that when the environment is safe, both the human and non-human are likely to reap from the bounties of the environment. It goes further to show that what affects man in the environment equally affects animals for they are members of the same environment.