Decentering the Human at Sea: Nonanthropocentrism in Gary Paulsen’s The Voyage of the Frog

Abstract

As a frequently overlooked dimension of the wilderness, the sea functions as a critical site through which fictional characters come to recognize human smallness. This is mediated by encounters with the volatile weather, nonhuman life, and a mode of perception that contrasts sharply with that of a civilized human community. The young adult (YA) novels authored by Gary Paulsen have often been categorized as man-against-nature narratives which emphasize human confrontation with and mastery over the natural environment. However, this paper argues that such readings overlook the ecocritical themes embedded in Paulsen’s works. It therefore attempts to analyze The Voyage of the Frog (1989) from a nonanthropocentric worldview in which the sea functions as an ecological agent that undermines the assumptions of human superiority and reveals humanity’s vulnerability within an interconnected environmental system. Drawing on Greg Garrard’s wilderness concept and Paul W. Taylor’s lens of nonanthropocentrism in environmental ethics, particularly his idea of respect for nature, the article presents a close reading from the framework of the principles such as nonmaleficence, the denial of human superiority, and ethical transformation in the selected YA text. The findings show that the narrative embodies a theme highlighting how the protagonist, David Alspeth, when cast into the nonhuman world such as the sea, gradually transforms toward nonanthropocentrism. He learns to recognize that he is not the center of value judgment, nor is he the superior creature compared to the animals. By foregrounding these ethical dynamics in the reading of the selected text, the study contributes to the growing body of scholarship that re-evaluates Gary Paulsen’s YA fiction through an important ecocritical and nonanthropocentric lens.