Final Research Paper

Environmentalism History in Through the Arc of the Rainforest

Through the Arc of the Rainforest by Karen Tei Yamashita is explored from different

contexts on its relation with nature and culture. The novel, written in the late twentieth century,

develops critical insights into the complexities surrounding the Amazon rainforest and how the

activities taking place in the region pose significant threats to the ecosystem. The issues that

Yamashita raises through the novel develop a key basis for the current environmental concerns

addressed by several media platforms and literature. In their essays, Ursula K. Heise and John B.

Gamber explore Through the Arc of the Rainforest from an environmentalist context, arguing

that Yamashita develops arguments that contrast the nature of the environment through a

postmodernism approach to its natural past. Both writers note the impact that human activity

presents on the degrading ecosystem, which Yamashita examines through the journey to

Matacao. Therefore, found on this context, this essay explores Yamashita's novel from an

environmentalist aspect, borrowing from Heise and Gamber's essays. It also argues that by

depicting the journey undertaken by her characters to the Matacao, Yamashita introduces

concerns surrounding the environmentalist nature of the Amazon, which is affected by various

ecological and economic advancements.

Yamashita's novel, through a fictious approach explores the implications of human

activities and other negative factors affecting environmentalism in the post-modern society,

particularly within the Amazon rainforests. In the first chapter of Yamashita's story, the author

introduces the idea of memory, which envisions the tensions surrounding Brazil in its present

and past, with regards to the implications experienced across the Amazon rainforests (Koontz

19). The context of environmental degradation that faces the Amazon is explored in the novel
from its origins, which can be characterized as the mentioned memory. Through this perspective,

the author develops a clear and vivid picture of the life experienced in the region before the

intrusion of the GGG corporation. According to Koontz's essay, Yamashita uses the characters of

Mane Pena and Chico Paco to explore the idea of cultural heritage before the entrance of the

company, disrupting the normalcy of the community. Pena, a traditional healer who uses feathers

to treat others in the community and Paco, a boy who undertakes a religious pilgrimage in the

hope of saving the life of his childhood friend, embody the attributes of a society whose

connection with the environment at biological and human-nature level is incomparable to the

Western community. Thus, the traits associated with the two characters indicate the power that

exists in the inherited cultural traditions and the morals they uphold in their respect for the

ecology. While, the emergence of postmodernism in the Amazonian indigenous community was

focused on economic growth, its impact on the environment resonated across the society's past

and present nature. Therefore, Yamashita utilizes the characters in her novel to depict the

challenges that modernity poses to the authentic context of a society and its beliefs.

Kazumasa, according Gamber, pursues the desire for a sense of place within an

environment that is largely affected by various artificial landscapes and nonhuman alienations

(Gamber, 39). Kazumasa says that he found himself dancing with the goblins, which alludes to

the interaction with Tweep and his profit focused agenda. In his essay, Dancing with Goblins in

Plastic Jungles Gambler asserts that Yamashita's novel examines various aspects of

environmental degradation from a conventionally founded aspect relating to varying ecological

romanticism elements (Gambler, 40). Based on this understanding, it is arguable that the

implications that the Amazon experiences are connected to a historical notion. While Batista and

Tania's venture into the pigeon business influenced a positive perception of postmodernism in
the indigenous Amazonian community, it significantly facilitated the harm that Tweep's GGG

corporation introduced to the community. Hence, the deterioration of the ecological system that

faces the Amazon, posed considerable implications to the indigenous community, whose naïve

nature was abused before and after their environment was affected. This premise is presented by

Heise in the essay, Local Rock and Global Plastic: World Ecology and the Experience of Place.

Heise extrapolates the issue of postmodernity, especially in relation to globalization, as a major

factor that led to the deterioration of the Amazonian environment, which not only impacted

nature, but also the culture of the indigenous community in the region.

According to Simal (2010), the examination and evaluations of Yamashita's novel on its

perspective on the context of nature, presents aspects of ecocriticism. Ecocriticism, as defined by

Simal's article relates to the relationship that exists between literature and the physical

environment (Simal, 2). Based on different literature, the environment is regarded as an

important part of humanity's existence, and thus, activities that affect its role are considerably

questioned. Heise argues that various developments that take place in the society, ranging from

communication networks, transportation advancements, infrastructural growth, and globalization

introduce several environmental and technological threats (Heise, 127-8). These threats lead to

factors that reshape the perception of the environment's sense of place, affecting both those who

migrate and those who choose to remain in the confides of their communities (128). This context

is presented by Yamashita through the character of John B. Tweep, whose authority is governed

by GGG, an American company that is focused on gaining profits. The company, enters the

Amazon in pursuit of profitability, however, they among other involved parties converge at a

unitary location, which the indigenous community refers to as the Matacao. As a result of the

activities that follow, environmental degradation takes place, where the process of dumping the
plastic prompts deforestation. While Tweep's characterization depicts aspects of environmental

deterioration through human activity, corruption and greed across postmodernism, the

indigenous people are a representation of conservative nature of the past. Thus, introducing

Yamashita's contrast of the Brazilian present and past, where the past is reshaped from its

unblemished and free nature, to the presently postmodernist infected context, as a result of

Tweep's interference. The exploitation that involves Tweep and other entities, critical place

society in jeopardy, particularly with the commodifying of the feather and exploitation through

the Matacao.

The feather, according to Yamashita held magical healing powers, which enabled Mena

Pena to heal the members of his community. However, when the GGG corporation, led by

Tweep comes into the picture, the mystical aspect of the feather is lost. Tweep exploits the

feather's purpose for profits, where the company undertakes its mass production. The economic

venture he pursues by marketing the feathers both the real and artificial one's lead to the deaths

of many people. The marketed feathers lead to hallucinations and typhus, which ultimately cause

the death of those affected. The events that follow the greed and corruption that Tweep embodies

are experienced in the society as a result of the deterioration of the community's cultural heritage.

In Gamber's essay, the writer notes that postmodernism, which tension that results from the past

and present of the indigenous community is largely attributed to discovery of the rainforest (45).

Thus, the feather, which symbolizes the resources in the rainforest, after its exploitation

retaliated against human harm. This development serves to represent the environment impending

retaliation against human exploitation, which exists in form of deforestation and destruction.

Destructive means of the rainforest, particularly with the Matacao, a vast material that existed in

the region, signifies the rate at which people are willing to go to gain economic advantage
without regard for ecological conservation. And the currently experienced climate changes can

serve as a culmination of the environment fighting back. While, Yamashita offers interesting

fictious contexts of the Amazon and the role of human activity in its degradation, her novel also

develops adequate contexts that raise awareness on the importance of environmental

conservation.

Similar to her interpretation of modernization and economic growth, Yamashita takes an

interesting perspective on the movement to preserve the Amazon. The novel develops aspects

which criticizes hollow cries for complete preservation of the Amazon. Through the

contextualized issues that Yamashita raises in the novel, she calls out on Westerners' show of

concern in the preservation of the Amazon as ignorance. For instance, the Matacao, which is a

significant cause for the deconstruction experienced within the Amazon, was identified as in

need of preservation, prompting conservationists to rally for the process, but all in vain. The calls

propagated, thus, compelled the perspective taken by Yamashita in the novel, since such

movements did not yield to any results. The lack of results was attributed to the continued

exploitation of the plastic. However, these calls for preservation are myopic and not the solution

to the Amazon's environmental issues. Yamashita's inclusion of these conservationists is

commentary on how in real life, conservationists only call for preservation when the

environmental situation gets to awful levels. Near the end of the novel, she describes the

Matacão with apocalyptic imagery, almost mocking how environmentalism needs to be

sensationalized-as if people do not change their ways, the end of world will come. Her satire

demonstrates that people should not wait until the environmental situation is in a dire situation or

only care about the environment when the effects of environmental degradation are
sensationalized. Thus, through the events in the novel, Yamashita explores environmentalism in

various aspects, including its romanticism feature.

Environmental romanticism, which originates from the relationship between the people

and nature, is largely evidenced in the novel. The concept, which emerges from the context of

the novel is depicted in the manner through which the indigenous community use various

ecological resources for their development and growth without hampering its nature. Batista and

Tania use pigeons as a delivery system, which connects the community with other regions. The

pigeons act as a mean of communication, which play a vital role in the society, but also influence

the destruction of the ecological biology that existed between the people and the environment. It

is through the delivery system that Tweep is able to reach the indigenous community, and

prompt a rise of events that propel the environments degradation. Through the process of

migration, which depicts the journey to the Matacao, According to novel, the Matacão is

characterized is having a previous perception of harboring a busy and bustling life, from various

human activities. However, in its current form, the land is desolate, however, as time progress

and harmony between the community and ecology rekindles, the Amazon once again starts to

adapt. According to Heise, even though postmodernism takes ground in the community, the

forest eventually takes on its previous glorious nature, although it will not be as it was before.

Nevertheless, while the forest does not go back to its previous nature, it learns to grow and

transition to overcome the challenges it faced and matches towards a new journey of survival.

Conclusion

Areas where developments have exhausted the forest's biodiversity are unable to respond,

however the underlying forest, attributable to its ecology, is able to rejuvenate these regions. As

a result, the Amazon shows endurance in the face of human influence. This interaction comes
under the Anthropocene epoch, in which "individuals are causing evident effects on the climate

at the global scale.  As a result, considering the precise specifics of the effects on the

environment humanity represents across Yamashita's novel, the novel provides critique for the

problems environmentalist romanticism posed for the society.. Although, Batista and Tania

characterize a positive context of post modernistic advances, Tweep's emergence with a greedy

and corrupt mindset introduces advancements that jeopardized the ecological relationship that

existed between the people and nature. His efforts, further hamper cultural tradition, which

represent the shortcomings of migration to the environment.

Works Cited

Gamber, John B. "Chapter Three: "Dancing with Goblins in Plastic Jungles": History, Nikkei

Transnationalism, and Romantic Environmentalism in Through the Arc of the Rain

Forest." Karen Tei Yamashita, 2019, pp. 116-135.

Heise, Ursula K. "Local Rock and Global Plastic: World Ecology and the Experience of

Place." Comparative Literature Studies, vol. 41, no. 1, 2004, pp. 88-114.

Koontz, Ari. "Spectres of the Past: The Complexities of Nature and Culture in "Through the Arc

of the Rain Forest." Oceans Razor, vol. 8, no. 4, 2018, pp. 18-24,

cedar.wwu.edu/orwwu/vol8/iss1/4. Accessed 19 May 2021.

Simal, Begona. "The Junkyard in the Jungle: Transnational, Transnatural Nature in Karen Tei

Yamashita's Through the Arc of the Rain Forest" Journal of Transnational American

Studies 2.1 (2010): 1-25.