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How Janisse Ray uses the environment to define identity of the south in ‘Ecology of a

cracker Childhood’

Ecology of a Cracker Childhood, a well-known memoir by Janisse Ray, was published in

1999 and alternates between chapters that focus on her own life and those that explore the history

of the south's longleaf pine forests. Literary biophilia is demonstrated by the book's cohesive

structure. Janisse Ray uses environment to define identity in a couple of ways. To support her

practical claim that environmentalists must learn to accept human work in nature, Ray offers a

solid theoretical foundation. Some of the ways Ray uses the environment to define identity of the

south are how exploitation of natural resources has led to environmental degradation, she uses

unique features such as the longleaf pine and by highlighting this she underscores the importance

of environment in shaping the identity of the south and she also uses the junkyard where she

lived as a metaphor to mean wilderness.

To begin with, one of the ways Ray uses the environment to define the identity of the

south in her novel is through how exploitation of natural resources has led to environmental

degradation. At the same time that she confronts the truth of the irreparable harm that humans

have caused to her native region, she frequently organizes mankind and nature as components of

the same totality, giving a number of human/natural dichotomies that she systematically

dismantles. She does this by establishing a theoretical framework in which human labor may be a

useful component of the environment, something that neither the destructive, industrial-scale

labor that has devastated the area nor the Muir-inspired preservationist approach accomplish.

Ray provides a perspective derived from labor and conservation, something that is present in

comparatively few environmental discourses on human labor. As the daughter of a junk dealer

and an environmentalist, she is aware of the value of work and its effects. The context of Ray’s
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work heightens its impact. She writes not from a place of striking beauty—indeed, South

Georgia is, as she writes, “about as ugly as a place gets” (Ecology 13). “Unless you look close,”

Ray writes, “there is little majesty” (13). Even the labor that Ray writes about is less beautiful

than the labor of Berry’s yeoman farmers. As Ray writes, she “come[s] from scavengers,” linking

her family’s labor in the junkyard to the work of vultures and blowflies (32).

Moreover, she uses unique features such as the longleaf pine and by highlighting this she

underscores the importance of environment in shaping the identity of the south. The longleaf

pine forests are shown by Ray in a complex manner that is equally complex. The whole book—

more than 50 percent—is devoted to this area, and it receives nothing but the greatest praise. The

longleaf pine ecosystem is revered by Ray in a way that is reminiscent of Muir's ecstatic

vocabulary when he wrote about Yosemite. She describes the distinctive experience a pine forest

offers, stating: What thrills me most about longleaf pine forests is how the pine trees sing. The

horizontal limbs of flattened crowns hold the wind as if they are vessels, singing bowls, and air

stirs in them like a whistling kettle. I lie in thick grasses covered with sun and listen to the music

made here. This music cannot be heard anywhere else on earth. Rustle, whisper, shiver, whinny.

Aria, chorus, ballad, chant. Lullaby. (68-69) With her evangelical upbringing, Ray is

undoubtedly aware of the spiritual connotation "vessel" holds, which is evident in her language

here. Ray's vocabulary also conveys her respect for the forest. Although her fellow Crackers may

find the reference to singing bowls more cryptic, it nonetheless suggests something holy and

enigmatic.

Additionally, Ray also uses the junkyard where she lived as a metaphor to show the

wilderness part in the south. The junkyard is the opposite of everything that romantic nature

should be. It is cluttered, “stuffed with junked, wrecked, rusted, burned, and outmoded
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automobiles and parts of automobiles…. like sticking your head in a wide-angle trash can” (21).

The place is so crowded and offensive that the first boyfriend that Ray brings home refuses to

leave the bedroom, and breaks up with her as soon as they leave her parents’ house (32). Ray’s

father is a scavenger on the bottom of the human economic food chain, living off the refuse of

other’s lives, and the junkyard is as corrupted by human labor as a place could possibly be. It is

nearly permanently damaged. Ray writes, eighty to ninety five percent of the metals of vehicles

of that era are recyclable, but what do you do with the gas tanks? What about the heavy metal

accumulations in the soil, lead contamination, battery acid leaks, the veins of spilled oil and

gasoline? The topsoil would have to be scraped away: where would it go? What about the rubber,

plastic, and broken glass? Would we haul it all to the county dump? It might take a lifetime, one

spent undoing. (268) Nothing even close to exquisite exists here. Oddly enough, Ray also

describes it as a wilderness area in her writing.

In conclusion, the environment largely or obviously defines the identity of the South. The

distinctive characteristics, including the long pine trees, marshes along the gulf coast, and the

Appalachian Mountain, highlight how important geography is in defining identity. The social and

political history of the South can also be investigated using the environment. For instance,

environmental deterioration and societal inequity have resulted from the use of natural resources.

She also emphasizes the need of social justice and environmental advocacy. She also emphasizes

how natural resources and the environment have an impact on identity. She discusses the

function of agriculture, the significance of crops grown like cotton, fishing in Crater Lake, and

hunting in the traditions of the South.

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Reference

Elliott, J. (2017). Solving Our Bread Problem: Gnostic Trends in Environmentalist Thought and

Janisse Ray as Solution. Green Humanities: A Journal of Ecological Thought in

Literature, Philosophy & the Arts, 2(1), 81-103.