American Pastoral : An Ethical Tragedy

Philip Roth is one of the most prolific contemporary Jewish American writers. American Pastoral is the first novel of his “American Trilogy”. It was finished in 1997 and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1998. The novel mainly talks about a Jewish immigrant Seymour Levov and the lives of the four generations of his family in America. Because of the different times of each generation, the four generations have gone through totally different life experience in America. It is through this work that Philip Roth has presented us with a panorama of the living state of Jewish immigrants in America carefully and vividly. As one of the masterpieces of his works, American Pastoral has aroused great attention and controversies since its publication. The foreign scholars mainly focus their attention on the recognition of identity and the writing skill of the work. The research at home is center on the theme of American dream, while this thesis attempts to use the ethical literary criticism to explore the ethical predicament and tragic fates of Levov's, and further presents that this novel is an ethical tragedy which reflects the Jewish-American's ethical problems.This thesis consists of three parts, including the introduction, the main body and the conclusion. The introduction part gives a brief introduction to Philip Roth and his literary career, sums up the research on American Pastoral at home and abroad, and provides the research method and perspective. Chapter one discusses that Levov and his daughter Merry are tortured physically and spiritually in the background of the American society, they get lost in the ethical predicament of identity crisis, which finally leads to their ethical tragedy. Chapter two focuses on Levov's ethical predicament of family crisis, his incest desire for Merry and the paternal and matrimonial crises aggravate those character's identity problems, which result in ethical tragedy. Chapter three makes an analysis on the ethical predicament of religious belief crisis of Levov's family. After the Vietnam War and the Counterculture Movement, American racial discriminations become more severe. In such ethical environment, the changes of religious beliefs finally brings them ethical predicament, showing an ethical tragedy of Jewish-American.The conclusion makes analysis on the ethical predicament of the hero's crises from perspectives of ethical identity, family and religious beliefs which helps to explore the ethical tragedy and the profound ethical connotations in American Pastoral, to explore the ethical and moral phenomena and illustrates the ethical thoughts, hoping to enlighten the modern society.