Abstract

California blue is a thoughtful novel that will strike a chord with many young-adults. It has won great popularity since its publication as the author David Klass intelligently combines the theme of growing-up dilemma with environmental protection theme by throwing away the dogmatism of environmentalism while still being able to make clear his environmental ideas by intermingling it with the growing-up story of a young boy. He experiments with teenager problems by confronting the protagonist with sexual awakening, generation gaps and peer pressure all at the same time. And this awkward situation is further intensified by the psychological and physical abuse the protagonist suffers in the effort of preserving his beloved nature. This paper intends to use theories of initiation and ecocriticism to explore how nature plays the irreplaceable role in the initiation process of adolescents and the interrelation between deteriorating social relation and return to nature.

KEYWORDS:Initiation theory; ecocriticism; theme; California blue.

摘  要

《加利福尼亚蓝蝶》是一本发人深省，回味无穷的好书，它触动了许许多多青少年的心弦。作者巧妙地将青少年成长困境与环境保护两大主题结合在一起，丢弃了环境主义的教条，转而在一个青年的成长故事中清晰地阐明自己的环境观点，因而该书自出版以来就颇受读者喜爱。作者以青少年问题为试验对象，使主人公同时面临着性觉醒，代沟，同伴压力等成长难题。而主人公的这种困境因其在保护环境的努力中所遭受的身心折磨而显得更令人绝望。本文拟运用成长理论与环境批评理论来解读自然在青少年成长过程中所扮演的不可替代的角色以及社会关系恶化与回归自然的内在联系。

关键词:成长理论；生态批评；主题；《加利福尼亚蓝蝶》。

1    Introduction
1.1 Introduction to David Klass
The author David Klass is a novelist and screenwriter whose novels for young adults often deals with coming-of-age themes from coping with loss to ecology. Born in a literary family, he was well exposed to literature as his mother Sheila Klass surrounded her family with books and literature and his father, an anthropology professor, was particularly fond of the works of P.G. Wodehouse, and enjoyed playing different roles as he read books aloud to his children. This steady infusion of language and literature had its effect on their children as David and his sisters Perri Klass, a doctor, and Judy Klass have all published books.