A Study Of Saving Fish From Drowning From The Perspective Of Ethical Literary Criticism

Saving Fish from Drowning(2005) was written by the Chinese American writer, Amy Tan(1952-), which is another peek in her writing career. After her first novel, The Joy Luck Club(1989) won the bestseller award, her other works, including The Kitchen God’s Wife(1991), The Hundred Secret Senses(1996), and The Bonesetter’s Daughter(2001), also enjoy high reputations in literary area. In Amy Tan’s early works, she tries to express the themes of mother-daughter relationship and the differences between the East and the West. However, in Saving Fish from Drowning, she takes a unique perspective on these themes and makes a great breakthrough, endowing the novel with rich ethics. This thesis uses the method of ethical literary criticism to analyze Saving Fish from Drowning on the basis of close reading. By analyzing the changes of the ethical identities of the characters and the ethical selection they made in the novel,it gives the reasons of the conflicts and contradictions. Finally, it explores Amy Tan’s ethical thought by describing the characters’ ethical redemption in the novel.The thesis consists of five parts: chapter one gives a brief introduction of Amy Tan and her literary achievements, describes the story of Saving Fish from Drowning, and summarizes the studies on the novel both at home and abroad. Then it proposes to research the ethical connotations in the novel based on ethical literary criticism and gives an introduction of the scope and significance of this thesis.Chapter two describes the difference between ethics and ethical literary criticism and emphasizes the necessity to analyze Saving Fish from Drowning from the perspective of ethical literary criticism. Then it interprets the influence of ethical experience on Amy Tan’s artistic creation. Chapter three describes the disharmonious ethical questions in the novel, including the ethical conflicts in Amy Tan’s family, the ethical confusion between love and sex and the ethical predicament caused by different cultures. This thesis focuses on the family relationship in Bibi Chen’s family. Bao Tian’s abuse to her, lack of paternal love and her parents’ disharmonious marriage all deeply influenced Bibi’s life and her mind. She was lost in ethical confusion and had unfair relationship with her boyfriend. The American tourists had the same problems. They met different conflicts and contradictions and were always stuck in ethical predicament.Chapter four tells the story of saving fish from drowning to express the great changes of the American tourists. With the ethical regression of love, everyone realized the importance of harmony in the family and in the society. This kind of harmony was based on mutual responsibility and mutual equality. Chapter five is the conclusion of the ethical questions. It conveys that Amy Tan’s ethical thought was harmony and respect. Everyone, both in fictitious world and real society, should find the way out of problems and purify one’s spirit till itsharmonization with the world around.