From Confrontation To Reconciliation-an Analysis Of The Female Characters In Ian Mcewan’s Solar

Ian McEwan is one of the most outstanding writers in post-war British literary circles.Since the publication of his first collection of short stories, First Love, Last Rite, he hasbeen paying attention to the either visible or invisible vicissitudes in modern men’s lives.Solar, his latest novel, by using ecological crisis as a backdrop, depicts the complicatedgender relationships in the twenty-first century. His humorously interesting narrationmakes this book funny but prophetic. This essay aims to examine carefully six femaleswho are described in Solar from a feminist perspective, meanwhile analyzes McEwan’sdifferent attitude towards them, and explains his compassion and support for moderatefeminist movement.This essay consists of three parts, introduction, body part and conclusion. Theintroduction states McEwan’s achievements in international literary circles as well ascurrent critical comments on his works at home and abroad, lists the research methodswhich will be used in this thesis, and finally illustrates briefly the structure andorganization of this thesis.The body part is divided into three chapters. Chapter one describes in detail traditionalwomen’s passive roles in both family and society using Patrice and Angela as examples.Due to social prejudices against women and their affiliated status to men, traditionalwomen could not articulate their inner wishes and desires. Most of them simply resort tovengeful actions, such as extramarital affairs, to vent their frustration and anger, which notonly brings painful experiences to them, but also results in much domestic and socialunrest.Chapter two deals with the issue of gender differences between men and women fromperspectives of Maisie and Nancy, who challenge male authority defiantly. For thousandsof years, people have acknowledged it as an irrefutable fact that men do better in scientificfields than women. Scientists even intend to use seemingly impartial experimental statisticsto prove that different brain structures have caused the cognitive disparities between menand women. However, the fact is that there are no significant differences in cognition thatgive males any advantage in math or physics. Divergences between boys and girls are amyth rather than a truth. Maisie and Nancy fight hard to overthrow males’ self–assumedsuperiority in scientific areas. Though they have both failed, other feminists will carry onthis cause to help women to realize their own deep-buried potential.Chapter three discusses the significance of women’s independent social status. Women’s economic independence enables them to be more confident in their latent ability,to be less afraid of men and gradually free themselves of male constraints. In Solar,successful Melissa and ambitious Darlene are two role-models for the great masses ofwomen being oppressed. Through their own examples, they prove to their sisters thatwomen can prove their values through meaningful work. Furthermore, independent womencan also put right the discordant or even hostile relationship between men and women bydiscovering their shortcomings, and letting go of mutual biases.The last part concludes this thesis with a short summary of its contents. Based onprevious illustrations and analysis, the author of this thesis summarizes that the causes ofall our environmental and social problems lie in the existing oppressive social structure.Therefore, to rescue nature and our living conditions from further deterioration, our toppriority is to foster a harmonious gender relationship with mutual devotion and love fromboth sexes.