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VOL. 12, ISSUE 1 (2026)
Climate, vulnerability, and ecological awareness in Barbara Kingsolver’s Flight Behavior
Authors
V Chandrika, Dr. L Suresh
Abstract
This paper examines Barbara Kingsolver’s
Flight Behavior (2012) as a narrative of ecological vulnerability and shared
precariousness in the context of climate change. Set in a rural Appalachian
community, the novel foregrounds the unexpected migration of monarch
butterflies as a visible marker of climatic disruption, transforming abstract
environmental discourse into lived experience. Drawing selectively on Pramod K.
Nayar’s concept of ecoprecarity, this study explores how environmental
instability generates conditions of risk, uncertainty, and uneven survival for
both human and nonhuman life. The analysis focuses on three interrelated
dimensions: ecological disruption represented through the monarch butterflies,
rural human vulnerability shaped by economic marginalisation, and the fragile
interdependence between human and nonhuman worlds. Kingsolver’s narrative
reveals that climate change intensifies existing social and economic
insecurities, particularly within marginalised rural communities, while
simultaneously threatening fragile ecological systems. By presenting climate
change as a shared condition of vulnerability rather than an isolated
environmental crisis, Flight Behavior calls for heightened ecological awareness
and ethical responsibility. The paper argues that Kingsolver’s novel
exemplifies ecoprecarity by foregrounding interconnected lives and emphasising
the need to recognise coexistence within unstable environmental conditions.
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Pages:74-76
How to cite this article:
V Chandrika, Dr. L Suresh "Climate, vulnerability, and ecological awareness in Barbara Kingsolver’s Flight Behavior". International Journal of English Research, Vol 12, Issue 1, 2026, Pages 74-76
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