Below are some general generic questions to put to any of our texts. As we read more about ecocriticism, you'll be able to refine these or ask questions more tailored to specific critical perspectives.

1.  What seems to be the fundamental relationship between human beings and the natural world in a particular text? (Antagonistic, harmonic, sympathetic, reflective, dominant, subject, competitive, cooperative, property, indifference, etc.)

2.  Does nature as depicted in a particular text seem orderly or disorderly?  What are the implications of that depiction for the text’s meaning?

3. What role does God play in a representation of the natural world?  Does He seem actively engaged in managing nature to some particular end?  Does He seem retired, letting nature run on its own (for better or worse)?

4. How is the natural world known in a particular text?  Is this knowledge presented as reliable, useful, or somehow controversial?

5. Are there any obvious ways in which nature is manipulated to make a particular individual or collective point?  In other words, how do appeals to nature serve as evidence in an argument?

6. Do human beings, and their productions (language, art, system of rule, etc.), seem fundamentally natural or unnatural in a given text?  Or, does human life seem in tune with or alienated from the natural world?

7. In what ways is nature “gendered”—associated with particularly male or female values—and to what purpose? How is the natural world used to construct a given gender role?

8. How is nature at odds or in tune with the progression of an abstract Time—does nature serve time, or does time serve nature, and what are the implications for human life?

9. In what ways do divisions in nature underscore or challenge social divisions, particularly among members of different economic classes?

10. Does nature seem representative of a particular form of government—monarchy, aristocracy, republic, anarchy?

11. Are there any conflicts in the ways nature is represented within a particular text?  Do different characters have different views?  Do the author’s views seem to depart from his characters’?  Do a character’s ideas about nature evolve throughout the text?

12. How does one text review or revise a specific idea about nature found in another text (the key here is a “specific idea”)?