Functions And Ethics Of Character Narration:Reading The Cement Garden From Rhetorical Narratology

As one of Ian McEwan’s early works, The Cement Garden is marked as "Macabre literature". However, The Cement Garden is also a novel that can bring readers some enlightenment to ethics concerning ethical problems probably faced by adolescents during their growth. This thesis attempts to analyze the functions of character narrator and its corresponding ethical positions in this novel from the perspective of rhetorical narratology, in the hoping of unveiling how this unique narrative art expresses ethical thoughts of a given narrative.In the theoretical framework of rhetorical narratology, this thesis purports to analyze the techniques of character narration in The Cement Garden, especially to explore the way in which this kind of technique conveys ethical purposes. In light of Phelan’s rhetorical theory of narrative, especially his approach to character narration, this paper discusses functions of the character narrator Jack as well as his different ethical positions in this novel through closing reading. As the narrator, Jack discloses his unreliability to readers unconsciously while reports, reads and evaluates the narrated for the narratee; as the character, he is a representative of teenagers and is characterized as cross-regional and universal. In fact, McEwan’s choice of this narrative strategy is rich in ethical implications. Through the detailed analysis of ethical positions of characters, narrator, the implied author and the flesh-and-blood reader in the novel, this thesis unveils character narrator’s characters functions in the story world and telling functions in the discourse world. In so doing, it helps enrich and refresh our knowledge of The Cement Garden and its narrative art.In The Cement Garden, the use of character narration serves the ethical theme. Through the indirect art of character narration, McEwan represents the loss of ethics of four teenagers during their growth. As a result, he warns people the ethical problems adolescents probably come across. During their growth, they need proper ethical guidance, or they might commit ethical crime unconsciously.