Exploring the Integration of Technology and Environtment in Peter Brown’s Novel The Wild Robot

Abstract

This study examines the integration of technology and nature in Peter Brown’s novel The Wild Robot (2016) through two theoretical frameworks: Greg Garrard’s ecocritical concepts of wilderness and dwelling, and Donna Haraway’s cyborg theory. Technology and nature are often seen as two opposing forces that cannot coexist. The rapid development of technology in modern life has raised concern about its impact on the natural environment, leading many people to assume that machines and ecosystems can never truly belong together. Brown’s novel challenges this assumption through the story of Roz, a robot who washes ashore on a wild island and must learn to survive among animals and ecosystems entirely foreign to her design. Using a qualitative descriptive analytical method, this research traces how Roz’s journey from a stranded machine to an active member of the island’s ecosystem reflects both an ecocritical process of learning to dwell responsibly in a place, and Haraway explains the assumption that technology and nature occupy fundamentally separate categories. The findings reveal that Brown’s novel constructs the island not as a wilderness that resists the artificial, but as a living system that reshapes every entity within it regardless of its origin. This study contributes to ecocritical and posthumanist discourse by demonstrating that popular fiction can challenge the deepest assumptions of environmental thought while remaining accessible to diverse audiences.