Beyond Worship: Ecophobia as Domination in Steinbeck’s To a God Unknown

Abstract This article reexamines John Steinbeck’s To a God Unknown through the lens of ecophobia, maintaining that the protagonist Joseph Wayne’s rituals of nature worship and the attitude of people around him toward his mystical bond with nature mask a deeper anxiety and fear toward nature’s agency. Drawing on Simon Estok’s theory of environmental fear and hostility, the analysis reveals how Joseph’s acts function as performative domination rather than genuine reverence. The study identifies ecophobia as a settler-colonial response to nature’s autonomy, contrasting Joseph’s coercive rituals with Indigenous and other characters’ reciprocal relationships with the land. Key scenes, including Burton’s Christian ecophobia and the cyclical drought’s eventual devastation, reveal Steinbeck’s critique of anthropocentric delusions. By framing the novel as an ecophobic parable, this article bridges literary analysis with contemporary ecological crises, exposing the destructive consequences of humanity’s fear of nature’s uncontrollable power. The conclusion highlights the novel’s prescient warning: ecological hubris stems not from nature’s malevolence but from its majestic indifference to humanity’s desperate efforts to tame it.