An Analysis Of The Good Earth Trilogy From The Perspective Of Ethical Literary Criticism

Pearl S.Buck is a famous American woman writer in the 20 th century.She was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1932 and the Nobel Prize for literature in 1938 for her work The Good Earth.She employs her experiences living in China to create novels related to China,which exposes the authentic panorama of Chinese society to the western worlds.Her works can be regarded as a colorful and honest epic of Chinese farmers' life.There are three volumes in the Good Earth Trilogy,The Good Earth,Sons,and A House Divided,which respectively describe the magnificent ethical transfer of the three generations of Wang's family under the ethical environment of feudal society,warlord wars,and people's revolution.This paper employs Nie Zhenzhao's ethical literary criticism to analyze and interpret The Good Earth Trilogy.Applying three core terms of ethical literary criticism:ethical environment,ethical identity and ethical consciousness,this paper further analyzes the changes of Chinese ethical society in The Good Earth Trilogy.Furthermore,it explores the ethical tendency of Pearl S.Buck and provides profound enlightenment and instruction for modern society.This paper consists of six parts.The introduction part briefs Pearl S.Buck,her work the Good Earth Trilogy and literature review at home and abroad as well as the framework of this paper.The first chapter introduces the origin and development of ethical literary criticism,and presents three core terms of Nie Zhenzhao's ethical literary criticism: ethical environment,ethical identity and ethical consciousness,aiming to further analyze the ethical issues of this novel.The second chapter expounds the chaos and confusion of the ethical environment.The turbulent social ethical environment restrained the common people from various aspects,like the oppression of landlords,taxes and levies from warlords,and drought and famine.Besides,the patriarchal system ingrained people's concept of women's humble status.The family ethical environment dominated by the patriarchal systemendowed the man with the power to constrict his wives and sons,which led to the distorted ethical family environment.Besides,the farmers possessed the contradicted attitude towards the earth.Sometimes they possessed the utilitarian doctrine towards the earth,while sometimes they possessed reverence for the earth,which leads to disharmonious earth ethical environment.The third chapter illustrates abnormality and absence of ethical identity.In the turbulent social environment,with the cruel wars and severe famine,the ethical identity of common people was distorted under the domination of the animal factor.Besides,the female identity was marginalized under the patriarchal system's oppression.The ethical family environment dominated by the patriarchal system resulted in abnormal ethical family identities and relationships.In the disharmonious earth ethical environment,sons gradually deviated from their ethical identity as farmers.The fourth chapter analyzes that the awakening of people's ethical consciousness propelled the ethical environment of the society to the state of harmony.People's ethical consciousness in the society was constantly rising so that the ruling classes were eliminated.The awakening of women's ethical consciousness succeeded in escaping men's control.In the family,the awakening of family ethical consciousness drove the ethical relationships between family members to the state of harmony.People's rising ethical consciousness of returning to the earth endowed them with strong belief and awe in the earth and gave people the fortitude to conquer the turbulent social ethical environment of constant wars.The last chapter concludes Pearl S.Buck's ethical views on society,family and earth in the trilogy.Besides,it excavated the novel's realistic value of constructing a harmonious ethical society.