| Fae Myenne Ng(1956--) is one of the representative Chinese American writers, another outstanding Chinese American woman writer after Maxing Hong Kingston and Amy Tan. Based on her own life experience, Ng’s novels mainly reveal the hard life and miserable sufferings of the Chinese American immigrates living in the United States. Her first novel Bone receives a lot of attention and rewards for its distinctive narrative strategy, attractive plots, vivid characters and profound themes. The novel was nominated for the Pen-Faulkner Award in 1994 and incorporated into the Pushcart Prize Anthology.The theory of ethical literary criticism was proposed by Professor Nie Zhenzhao and had a further development through the efforts of other scholars. The theory emphasizes the instructive function of literature and regards the primary purpose of literature as providing moral models for human beings from the perspective of ethics. Literature is a part of history. Literature in different times contains different ethical environment and ethical context. Therefore, the premise of understanding a literary work is to put it in the ethical environment and ethical context which it belongs to. Based on the ethical literary criticism, the thesis analyzes three main characters, Leon, Ona and Leila in Fae Myenne Ng’s Bone from the following four aspects: ethical environment, ethical identity, ethical consciousness and ethical selection. It aims at exploring the ethical factors behind their different ethical selections, thus giving an insight into the author’s ethical pursuit.The thesis consists of three parts: the Introduction, the main body and the Conclusion.The first part is the Introduction. It includes the introduction to the author and the novel Bone, literature review, and the introduction to the theory of ethical literary criticism.The second part is the main body of the thesis and consists of four chapters. Chapter One illustrates different ethical environments of the three characters. Leon, the only man in the family, bears enormous pressure both from the American society and his family. He gets his due respect from nowhere. Because of the bankruptcy of the laundry business, Ona’s relationship with Osvaldo is opposed strongly by her family, which arouses her discontentment and revolt. After Ona’s death, Leila has to burden a lot of stress from her parents, which makes her own life more difficult.Chapter Two interprets the three characters’ understanding about their ethical identities and their corresponding responsibilities. Leon immigrates to the United States as Grandpa Leong’s paper son. Although he always works hard, Leon is far from being a responsible father and husband. Ona’s family cannot accept her ethical identity as Osvaldo’s girlfriend anymore after the failure of the laundry business, which influences Ona’s harmonious relationship with her family. Leila gradually understands her parents’ hardship living in the United States and accepts her ethical identity as a daughter of an immigrated family enventually.Chapter Three analyzes the different ethical consciousness of the three characters. Leon regrets for not keeping his promise to bring Grandpa Leong’s bones back to China. He believes that his life is doomed and cannot find any hope for the future. Leon’s tough attitude motivates Ona’s rebellious spirit and arouses Ona’s strong counterattack. Leila’s ethical consciousness is awakening and she gradually realizes that her excessive anxiety makes her life more difficult.Chapter Four illustrates the ethical selections of the three characters. Leon decides to live alone in the apartment San Fran and keeps connection with his family. Ona commits suicide at last by jumping off the Nam Ping Yuen(an apartment building in the novel). Leila moves away from Salmon Alley and makes up her mind to start a new life.The last part is the Conclusion. By analyzing the ethical factors behind different ethical selections, the thesis emphasizes that the four ethical factors, including ethical environment, ethical identity, ethical consciousness and ethical selection, are a united whole. If people lose the ability to make right adjustments under depressed ethical environments, and fail to have right understanding about their ethical identities and cannot manage to possess clear ethical consciousness, they will definitely make wrong ethical selections. In the novel, Leila is the only character who makes a right ethical selection, which can be viewed as an image of moral model. |
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