Nature as Narrative Driver in Pearl S. Buck’s "The Big Wave"

The present research argues that Pearl S. Buck’s The Big Wave represents nature as a dominant narrative and an ecological entity that sustains and transforms human existence. Through the portrayal of the sea, the wave, and the volcano, nature is presented not merely as a passive setting or symbolic background, but rather as an active narrative agent, shaping the plot, the character’s emotional transformation, and novel’s philosophical outlook. Drawing upon ecocriticism and actantial narratology, the present study aims to demonstrate that the novel’s major developments are driven by ecological entities rather than through autonomous human characters. The Big Wave does not interpret nature as exclusively destructive. The very sea that sustains the villagers also destroys their village. The sea provides food, livelihood, continuity, and renewal. This paradox challenges the anthropocentric concept of nature as benevolent or destructive, and introduces nature as an ecological entity beyond the human categories of good or evil. The study’s contribution lies in the foregrounding the agency of nature at the forefront and rethinks the relationship between humans and nature. The study suggests that the novel cultivates a new understanding of the world that is oriented toward ecology, in which humans need not seek to conquer or control nature but to live with its beauty, violence, uncertainty, and regenerative force.