Bifurcating Lives-an Ethical Literary Analysis On Philip Roth’s The Human Stain

Philip Roth is a prolific Jewish-American writer. With his unique narrativetechniques and profound writing ideas, he received a worldwide reputation. In hislong and successful writing career, he had countless literary awards. In2000, Rothpublished an important masterpiece in his later literary period—The Human Stain,which helped him win the PEN/Faulkner Award and the W.H.Smith Award.From the ethics perspective, this thesis analyzes the text with the method ofEthical Literary Criticism, in order to find out the ethical ideas in this literaryadventure and anatomize Roth’s ethical original intentions in writing.The thesis is divided into5chapters.Chapter1is the introduction part. This chapter starts with a brief introductionabout Roth’s life and his major literary contributions, and then the development ofEthical Literary Criticism in China is briefly summarized. Besides, this chapter alsopresents the status quo of Roth studies in China and abroad.Chapter2and3are the main body of the thesis. In these two chapters, the ethicalideas in The Human Stain are analyzed from two different ethical angles. Chapter2focuses on the racial ethics in the text: Coleman’s reasons for passing which includehis parents’ personal encounters, his misfortunes in youth, and his fruitless romancewith Steena; then, the disastrous results of Coleman’s passing which include hisbetrayal toward his race and family, his lies to his wife and children and also theironic turning point--the "Spook Incident". Chapter3combs the family ethics in thetext and analyzes Coleman and Faunia’s tragedies from this perspective: the familyenvironment where Coleman grew up and the family incentive of Coleman’s passing;Faunia’s family background and its influences toward Faunia’s life.Chapter4summarizes the ethical thoughts in Roth’s major novels especially inThe Human Stain. Firstly, this chapter analyzes in detail Roth’s ethical thoughts in hismajor novels, and then it concludes the ethical thoughts in The Human Stain. Byanalyzing all these thoughts, we can understand that in Roth’s opinion, trust, respect,support, understanding and toleration are vital criteria to hold together families ormarriages. Besides, this chapter also focus on Roth’s intense yearn for harmony in The Human Stain which includes his contempt towards war and his longing for innerpeace of everyone.Chapter5is the conclusion of the thesis. In the novel, by depicting themisfortunes of Coleman and Faunia’s tragic lives, Roth voices his deep concerntoward ordinary American citizens, reveals the ubiquitous selfish nature of humanbeing, expresses his intensive aversion to racial discrimination and wars, and showshis strong longing for a free, fair, righteous and harmonious society.