Author(s): Surabhi Chandan

Abstract: The impacts of climate change are negative and appear in the form of extreme weather events, disrupted ecosystems, and socio-economic challenges, disproportionately affecting vulnerable populations. Literature such as Barbara Kingsolver's Flight Behavior provides an indispensable lens for viewing these profound environmental and societal impacts. This paper attempts to explicate the extreme polarisation of the environment and anthropogenic catastrophe positioned in climate change in 21st-century literature, as particularly illustrated in Barbara Kingsolver's Flight Behavior. Dellarobia Turnbow — provides a nuanced glimpse into the complex effects of climate change on our ecosystems and rural communities. The unusual migration of monarch butterflies to Tennessee is a powerful symbol of the broader disruptions to the environment wrought by global warming. Kingsolver’s writings capture the feeling of ecological disarray and the need for change. This analysis will examine how the environmental tragedy is leveraged to elaborate on the socio-economic and cultural challenges that communities grapple with in confronting these environmental transformations and in following through with climate change mitigation. The scholarship will examine the conflation of scientific language with a vocabulary of personal transformation and the language of community through a critical lens, isolating how the novel not only furthers the genre of environmental literature but also calls for increased ecological consciousness. In addition, the article will explore the function of storytelling as a tool for creating public awareness and interest in climatic issues, Arguing that novel literature is an indispensable medium for confronting the complexities of global climate change. Through a close reading of Kingsolver's published work, I will argue that literature is both a mirror of our contemporary environmental crises and an illusion of a sustainable future.

Keywords: Climate Change, Monarch Butterflies, Ecosystem Disruption, Ecological Consciousness, Environmental Sustainability

Article Info: Received: 20 Dec 2024; Received in revised form: 21 Jan 2025; Accepted: 25 Jan 2025; Available online: 01 Feb 2025

DOI: 10.22161/ijels.101.10