Wasteland Of Humanity--An Ethical Literary Criticism Interpretation Of Ian McEwan’s Solar

Ian Russel McEwan is a prolific and profound contemporary English writer. He has been known by the world for his earlier dark-themed novels which give him the unique nick-name as "Ian MacAbre". His earlier works are mostly "shock horror" ones, and they all filled by the repugnant base elements of humanity, such as death, incest, castration, perversity, violence, sexual abuse and so on. However, Ian McEwan’s writing style is not always stagnant; it has indeed altered with time. Since the 1980s, McEwan has started to concentrate more on the wilder social and political circles. He pays more attention to the social and political problems in this phase of his writing career and this change helps him enter the mainstream.Ian McEwan is a very moral author. Whether in his earlier dark-themed works or his late McEwan-style ones, humanity is always the essential concern. His stark, pessimistic, hegemonic universe actions always have consequences. Besides, there seems to be a crucial moment of choice in McEwan’s work. The protagonists of his works usually confront a turning point, a decision which has to be made and everything follows after that. All these features are also showed in his later work Solar. Yet there is more than those features in Solar. In McEwan’s earlier works, he has a tendency to sharply separate good from bad, when in fact such distinctions are rarely hold. Evil and good interweave with each other, and it’s impossible to tell them apart in a single person, act or event. And McEwan seems to have understood it at last, and his epiphany has been perfectly showed in Solar.This thesis will probe into the panoramic ethical phenomena in Solar from the ethical literary criticism viewpoint, analyze the novel’s ethical construction, deconstruct the ethical knot from the aspect of ethical identity, ethical environment and ethical predicament, and explain the ethical reasons of the hero’s behavior. Thus, it can make an ethical explanation of the depicted wasteland of humanity, explore the ethical value and the ethical inspirations that the author wants to convey.The structure of this paper is as follows.This thesis starts with introduction. Chapter one firstly provides a brief introduction of Ian McEwan, his work Solar and related theory of criticism--ethical literary criticism. Secondly, it concludes a literary review of the previous studies on Solar both abroad and domestically. And thirdly, it makes a point of the significance of this thesis.The main body of the thesis ranges from Chapter two to Chapter four. Chapter two concentrates on the family and marriage ethics which are conveyed in the novel. First, this chapter reveals the ethical reasons of Beard’s dilapidated family by analyzing the alienation of their ethical identities owning to their wrongful pursuit of ethical identities. Second, it presents the character-molding effect of family ethical environment by studying the complicated parents-offspring relationship of both generations. And at last, it explores the vital factors for a harmonious marriage and the time-varying marriage ethics by discussing Beard’s two ill-fated marriages and his irresponsible relationship with Melissa.Chapter three makes a study on the social ethics of this novel. By analyzing Beard’s social ethical identity, this part aims to uncover the disorientation of ethical selection as the result of identity predicament under the effect of disordered social ethics.Chapter four focuses on the academic ethics in the novel. This part devote to expose the chaos of contemporary academic ethics by presenting the contradictions between the ethical codes of Beard’s academic identities and his behavior.Chapter five is the conclusion of this thesis. According to Ian McEwan’s depiction of the variety ethical phenomena and predicaments in Beard’s life and career, this thesis endeavors to unveil the ethical ideas that Ian McEwan means to convey, and the ethical inspirations for the readers.