On Anttel Of Light:Loss And Destruction

Joyce Carol Oates is considered as one of the most influential contemporary American writers.Regarded as the kaleidoscope of American social life,her works unfold every aspect of American society.Angel of Light is her fourteenth novel and one of her masterpieces.In the novel,Oates gives a keen and genuine description of the American society,culture,family and the living and mental condition of the characters,which not only demonstrates her sense of responsibility as a writer,but also provides readers and society with lots of ethical teachings.Many scholars have studied the novel from different angles,including psychoanalysis,feminism,and its violent theme.However,no scholars have discussed the ethical thought in this novel up to the present.Angel of Light is concerned with the various ethical relationships,such as the human-society relationship,human-other relationship and human-self relationship,and people’s ethical selections,which coincides with the ethical literary criticism.Thus,the thesis intends to interpret Angel of Light from a comparatively new perspective,the ethical literary criticism,to analyze the characters and events from ethical angle and discover the ethical values and moral tendency it contains,so as to have a better understanding of Oates’s ethical thought and appeals.First,the author of this thesis interprets the relationship between humans and society through analyzing the living predicament of three types of people.In the 1960s,as the Protestant ethic declined and collapsed,egoism,materialism,and hedonism prevailed in the society,and the social violence and terrorist activities overflowed.As a result,the social justice cannot be guaranteed and the conflicts between humans and society were intensified.As the human nature is shackled and distorted by the society,the ethical care between humans and society no longer exists.All characters,whether he is moral like Maurice,or young as Owen and Kirsten,or immoral and selfish as Nick and Isabel all fall victims to the society and end up tragically.Second,through analyzing several types of interpersonal relationships such as the inter-generational relationship,conjugal relations,sibling relationship and friendship in the novel,the author of this thesis explores the ethical barrier betweenhumans:estrangement,utilitarian,betrayal and indifference,as well as the ethical obligations of different ethical identities.Therefore,this part shows Oates’s ethical views on the human-other relationship:people should not only possess ethical awareness but also should be aware of their ethical identity and its corresponding obligations,so that the family ethics and a fraternal human-other relationship can be reconstructed.Last,the author of this thesis probes into the human-self relationship by analyzing the different behaviors of the main characters in face of ethical selections and dilemmas.Apart from Maurice,other characters in the novel all lose their"selves" as ethical and rational men in ethical selection and ethical dilemmas,which not only causes the ethical confusion and ethical crimes but also results in their own ruin and destruction.In this part,Oates offers us the ethical teaching that in the face of ethical dilemma,we as humans should always maintain ourselves as ethical men instead of being controlled by our insatiable lust,material desires and irrational will,otherwise we will violate the ethical taboos and lose ourselves.This thesis hopes to provide readers and researchers with a new perspective to Angel of Light,to expand the range of Joyce Carol Oates’s study and help them understand Oates’s moral proposal more profoundly.