Jean Giono’s The Man Who Planted Trees: Blurring the Lines of Fact and Fiction

Tuğçe Gül Babacan

Jean Giono’s The Man Who Planted Trees: Blurring the Lines of Fact and Fiction

Abstract

In an era of ecological crisis, startled by disturbances to the environment, either facilitated by human interference or the aggravated climate change, it is crucial to direct the attention towards meaningful connections with nature. Both fictional and non-fictional literary works have quite an impact on the field of ecocritical studies. French writer Jean Giono’s The Man Who Planted Trees (L’Homme quis plantait des arbres), published in 1954, has claimed critical appreciation by the scholars in the field. As short work of fiction, it has gathered attention to the conservative acts on the degraded landscapes. Even though the novella is considered as a fictional work, it has plausible impacts on real life by forming the initiative of environmental restoration practices on the land. The work not only echoes as the emergence of hands-on practices on nature, but it also carries factual and autobiographical notes within. This article looks into the traits that paves the way for The Man Who Planted Trees to blur the lines between fact and fiction. It examines the facets that carries the work from the fictional borders to expand into contemporary times

Keywords

References

Buhle, P., & Sciver, N. V. (2017). Johnny Appleseed: Green spirit of the frontier. Seattle, WA: Fantagraphics Books.
Butler, E. (1992). Jean Giono’s Provence: Marcel Pagnol’s comic vision. Recovering Literature, 18(2), 39-43.
Chawla, L. (1989). The man who planted trees [Review of the book The man who planted trees, by J. Giono]. Children's Environments Quarterly, 6(1), 56. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41515242
Clavel, B. (1996). Giono ou le refus de tuer. In M. Sacotte (Ed.), L’Enchanteur: Colloque international de Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France (pp. 13-9). Paris: B. Grasset.
Comfort, K. (2011). Elzéard Bouffier, Jean Giono's ecological saint. Neophilologus, 95(3), 403-414. https://www.academia.edu/56304813/Elz%C3%A9ard_Bouffier_Jean_Giono_s_Ecological_Saint
Dawson, P. (2015). Ten theses against fictionality. Narrative, 23(1), 74-100. https://www.jstor.org/stable/24615503
Easterlin, N. (2012). A biocultural approach to literary theory and interpretation. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins UP.
Freeman, S. (2018). Saving Tarboo Creek: One family’s quest to heal the land. Portland, OR: Timber Press.

Garrard, G. (2004). Ecocriticism. Oxfordshire: Routledge.
Gartner, W. B. (1993). Can’t see the trees for the forest. Journal of Management Education, 17(2), 269-74. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/105256299301700213
Giono, J. (2005). The man who planted trees. White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing.
Glotfelty, C. (1996). Introduction. In C. Glotfelty and H. Fromm (Eds.), The ecocriticism reader: Landmarks in literary ecology (pp. xv-xxxvii). London: University of Georgia Press.
Goodrich, N. L. (2005). Afterword: to the original edition. In Giono, J., The man who planted trees (pp. 37-44). White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing.
Heyne, E. (1987). Toward a theory of literary nonfiction. Modern Fiction Studies, 33(3), 479-490. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26282388
Heyne, E. (2001). Where fiction meets nonfiction: Mapping a rough terrain. Narrative, 9(3), 322-333. https://www.jstor.org/stable/20107261
Kerr, T. (2007). Conversations with the bunyip: the idea of the wild in imagining, planning, and celebrating place through metaphor, memoir, mythology, and memory. (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from Griffith University, (DOI: 10.25904/1912/2433)
Kerrigan, W. (2012). Johnny Appleseed and the American orchard: A cultural history. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins UP.
Kevra, S. (2023). The man who changed the climate: Frédéric Back’s film adaptation of the man who planted trees. Canadian Journal of Film Studies, 32(2), 61-86. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27343297
Krupnick, G. & Knowlton, N. (2017). Earth optimism: Success stories in plant conservation. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden, 102(2), 331-340. https://annals.mobot.org/index.php/annals/article/view/233
Lehman, D. (1997). Matter of fact: Reading nonfiction over the edge. Columbus: Ohio State UP.
Leopold, A. (1968). A sand county almanac and sketches here and there. New York: Oxford UP.
Lester, D. (2021). The environment and suicide—Why suicidologists should support climate change policies. Crisis: The Journal of Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention, 42(2), 89-91. https://econtent.hogrefe.com/doi/10.1027/0227-5910/a000752
Low, M. M. (2020). Finding a practical narratology in the work of restoration ecology. In E. James & E. Morel (Eds.), Environment and narrative: New directions in econarratology (pp. 147-164). Ohio: The Ohio State UP.
Maathai, W. (2004, December). Nobel Lecture. The Nobel Peace Prize 2004, Lecture presented at 2004 Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony, Oslo, Norway. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2004/maathai/lecture/
Mikkonen, K. (2006). Can fiction become fact? The fiction-to-fact transition in recent theories of fiction. Style, 40(4), 291-312. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5325/style.40.4.291
Moser, K. (2018). Protecting the fragile splendor of the universe: A Serresian reading of Jean Giono’s L’Homme qui plantait des arbres. Mosaic: A Journal for the Interdisciplinary Study of Literature, 51(3), 107-22. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26974113
The New Testament for English Readers: The Three First Gospels. (1863), Gilbert and Rivington.
Nowak, Z. (2015). The man who planted trees: How the truffle saved Provence. Gastronomica: The Journal of Critical Food Studies, 15(4), 73-6. https://www.academia.edu/23271950/The_Men_Who_Planted_Trees
O’Connell, R. (2007). Jean Giono. The man who planted trees, 20th anniversary edition. white river junction, VT: Chelsea Publishing Company, 2005. Reason and Respect, 3(1) 23-4. https://docs.rwu.edu/rr/vol3/iss1/11/
Oelschlaeger, M. (2007). Ecological restoration, Aldo Leopold, and beauty: An evolutionary tale. Environmental Philosophy, 4.1(2), 149–162. www.jstor.org/stable/26167146
Özdağ, U. (2009). An essay on ecocriticism in “the century of restoring the Earth”. Journal of American Studies of Turkey, 30, 125-142. https://yunus.hacettepe.edu.tr/~ozdag/jast125-142.pdf
Özdağ, U. (2022). Feeling like the Colorado River: Laying the groundwork of restoration ecocriticism. Folklor/Edebiyat, 28(109), 1-18. https://doi.org/10.22559/folklor.2073
Özdağ, U. (2024). Restoration ecocriticism: From habitat destruction to hands-on action. In C. Tan & İ. S. Altaç (Eds.), Eco-concepts: Critical reflections in emerging ecocritical theory and ecological thought (pp. 125-136). Maryland: Lexington Books.
Pierson, R. (2011). TREES AND THE FOREST: Story and trustori in Quaker faith and practice. CrossCurrents, 61(2), 150-160. https://www.jstor.org/stable/24461937
Rader, R. W. (1968). Literary form in factual narrative: The example of Boswell’s “Johnson.” In P. B. Daghlian (Ed.), Essays in eighteenth-century biography (pp. 3-42). Bloomington: U of Illinois P.
Raspiengeas, J-C. (2012, June 16). Frédéric Back, Le Noé du Québec. La Croix. Retrieved from https://www.la-croix.com/Archives/2012-06-16/Frederic-Back-le-Noe-du-Quebec-_NP_-2012-06-16-819268
Ronen, R. (1994). Possible worlds in literary theory. Cambridge: Cambridge UP.
Ryan, M. L. (1991). Possible worlds, artificial intelligence, and narrative theory. Bloomington: Indiana UP.
Sanders, S. R. (2009). A conservationist manifesto. Bloomington: Indiana UP.
Skov Nielsen, H. (2011). Fictional voices? Strange voices? Unnatural voices? In P. K. Hansen & S. Iversen et. Al. (Eds.), Strange voices in narrative fiction (pp. 55-82). Berlin: De Gruyter.
Slovic, S. (1994). Ecocriticism: Storytelling, values, communication, contact. Defining Ecocritical Theory and Practice. Utah: Position Papers from the 1994 Western Literature Association Meeting. https://www.asle.org/wp-content/uploads/ASLE_Primer_DefiningEcocrit.pdf
Starr, W. T. (1940). Jean Giono and Walt Whitman. The French Review, 14(2), 118-29. https://www.jstor.org/stable/380867
Thibeault, R. & Hébert, M. (2008). Redefining community development: The art of building relationships, not programs. Practicing Anthropology, 30(3), 24-27. https://www.jstor.org/stable/24781812
Trout, C. & Visser, D. (2006). Jean Giono. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Rodopi.
United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.decadeonrestoration.org/ Woodward, W. & Lemmer, E. (2019). Introduction: Critical plant studies. Journal of Literary Studies, 35(4), 23-27. https://doi.org/10.1080/02564718.2019.1690804

Details

Primary Language

English

Subjects

World Languages, Literature and Culture (Other)

Journal Section

Research Article

Authors

Tuğçe Gül Babacan ^*
0000-0003-4706-1612
Türkiye

Early Pub Date

May 6, 2026

Publication Date

-

Submission Date

September 1, 2025

Acceptance Date

March 30, 2026

Published in Issue

Year 2026 Number: Advanced Online Publication

IZ

https://izlik.org/JA75FX25KN

Cite

RIS / Bibtex

APA

Babacan, T. G. (2026). Jean Giono’s The Man Who Planted Trees: Blurring the Lines of Fact and Fiction. Eurasian Journal of English Language and Literature, Advanced Online Publication. https://izlik.org/JA75FX25KN

AMA

1.Babacan TG. Jean Giono’s The Man Who Planted Trees: Blurring the Lines of Fact and Fiction. EJELL. 2026;(Advanced Online Publication). https://izlik.org/JA75FX25KN

Chicago

Babacan, Tuğçe Gül. 2026. “Jean Giono’s The Man Who Planted Trees: Blurring the Lines of Fact and Fiction”. Eurasian Journal of English Language and Literature, no. Advanced Online Publication. https://izlik.org/JA75FX25KN.

EndNote

Babacan TG (May 1, 2026) Jean Giono’s The Man Who Planted Trees: Blurring the Lines of Fact and Fiction. Eurasian Journal of English Language and Literature Advanced Online Publication

IEEE

[1]T. G. Babacan, “Jean Giono’s The Man Who Planted Trees: Blurring the Lines of Fact and Fiction”, EJELL, no. Advanced Online Publication, May 2026, [Online]. Available: https://izlik.org/JA75FX25KN

ISNAD

Babacan, Tuğçe Gül. “Jean Giono’s The Man Who Planted Trees: Blurring the Lines of Fact and Fiction”. Eurasian Journal of English Language and Literature. Advanced Online Publication (May 1, 2026). https://izlik.org/JA75FX25KN.

JAMA

1.Babacan TG. Jean Giono’s The Man Who Planted Trees: Blurring the Lines of Fact and Fiction. EJELL. 2026. Available at https://izlik.org/JA75FX25KN.

MLA

Babacan, Tuğçe Gül. “Jean Giono’s The Man Who Planted Trees: Blurring the Lines of Fact and Fiction”. Eurasian Journal of English Language and Literature, no. Advanced Online Publication, May 2026, https://izlik.org/JA75FX25KN.

Vancouver

1.Tuğçe Gül Babacan. Jean Giono’s The Man Who Planted Trees: Blurring the Lines of Fact and Fiction. EJELL [Internet]. 2026 May 1;(Advanced Online Publication). Available from: https://izlik.org/JA75FX25KN