【文章內(nèi)容簡介】 he Lay of the Land in Cormac McCarthy’s Appalachia, K. Wesley Berry shows his interest in examining the geological changes in McCarthy’s Appalachia. A lot of data are brought in for a conclusion that human’s activities have already caused damages to natural environment, and if not stopped, will continue to harm the planet people are living on. In another essay by Sara Spurgeon, the idea that nature deserves to be explored and used by human is totally undermined through a closer examination of the message McCarthy tries to pass on to us in his works. The World on Fire deals with the same topic, but in a different way. Jacqueline Scoones finds McCarthy’s interest in portraying products of modern civilization and putting them in a setting of nature. Scoones insists that McCarthy intends to generate an odd contrast between civilization and nature, and to arouse a spontaneous hatred against people’s invasion into nature.Researchers also notice the animal images in his works. Major analysis include George Guillemin’s Some Site Where Life had not Succeeded, in which he mentions that John Grady’s attitude changes toward horses represent the wakening of his goodwill to nature. Western Myths in All the Pretty Horses and The Crossing by Barcley Owens explicitly affirms wolves as a “spokesman” of nature. And everything people could see from the animal and its relations with human may serve as the evidence that McCarthy hopes for a harmonious coexistence between human and nature.b）The Road has received numerous positive reviews and honors since its September 26, 2006 release. The review aggregator Metacritic reported the book had an average score of 90 out of 100, based on 31 reviews. Critics have deemed it heartbreaking, haunting, and emotionally shattering. The Village Voice referred to it as McCarthy39。s purest fable yet. In a New York Review of Books article, author Michael Chabon heralded the novel. Discussing the novel39。s relation to established genres, Chabon insists The Road is not science fiction: although the adventure story in both its modern and epic forms… structures the narrative, Chabon says, ultimately it is as a lyrical epic of horror that The Road is best understood. Entertainment Weekly in June 2008 named The Road the best book, fiction or nonfiction, of the past 25 years, ahead of J. K. Rowling39。s Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Toni Morrison39。s Beloved.British environmental campaigner George Monbiot was so impressed by The Road that he declared McCarthy to be one of the 50 people who could save the planet in an article published in January 2008. Monbiot wrote, It could be the most important environmental book ever. It is a thought experiment that imagines a world without a biosphere, and shows that everything we value depends on the ecosystem.” This nomination echoes the review Monbiot had written some months earlier for the Guardian in which he wrote, A few weeks ago I read what I believe is the most important environmental book ever written. It is not Silent Spring, Small Is Beautiful or even Walden. It contains no graphs, no tables, no facts, figures, warnings, predictions or even arguments. Nor does it carry a single dreary sentence, which, sadly, distinguishes it from most environmental literature. It is a novel, first published a year ago, and it will change the way you see the world.Academic essays on The Road are out of steps with its high praises. In Life of War, Death of the Rest, Tim Blackmore considers the way new nuclear technologies are inherently determinist, and reflects on the threat of the apocalyptic world as seen in The Road. In Cormac McCarthy and the Myth of American Exceptionalism published in 2008, John Cant studies the intertextuality between The Road and McCarthy’s former works, and suggests the novel “declares the inevitability of cultural entropy, but is itself an example of cultural vitality”.2) Cormac McCarthy’s works are still far from familiar to China’s literary circle. From the data from CNKI, it is clear that Cormac McCarthy has gained Chinese Critics’ attention only in recent years, especially after the release of the movie No country for Old Men. Before 2007, there are only two essays on Cormac McCarthy, while since 2007, 5 essays and 5 graduate theses have chosen this writer and his works, two of which are based on The Road. However, those two just introduce the plots of the novel and some relevant information. 3) About EschatologyEschatology (from the Greek , Eschatos meaning last and logy meaning the study of) is a part of theology and philosophy concerned with what is believed to be the final events in the history of the world, or the ultimate destiny of humanity, monly referred to as the end of the world. While in mysticism the phrase refers metaphorically to the end of ordinary reality and reunion with the Divine, in many traditional religions it is taught as an actual future event prophesied in sacred texts or folklore. More broadly, eschatology may enpass related concepts such as the Messiah or Messianic Age, the end time, and the end of days.Most modern eschatology and apocalypticism, both religious and secular, involves the violent disruption or destruction of the world, whereas Christian and Jewish eschatologies view the end times as the consummation or perfection of God39。s creation of the world.Eschatology concerns the things hoped for