Heroine's Ethical Identity's Redemption In Saving The Fish From Drowning

Amy Tan,a famous Chinese-American women writer,has created many impressive and thoughtful works.Focusing on Chinese-American group,she reveals many profound themes such as mother-daughter relationship,cultural conflicts,identity recognition.Saving the Fish from Drowning is another amazing novel written by Amy Tan.Finished in 2005,it has been on the “New York Bestseller” list since its publication.The novel tells that Chen Bibi,the second Chinese-American generation,planned to lead her American friends to travel around the eastern world.They would travel along the Burma Road,and enjoy the cultural landscape and natural scenery.But Bibi was dead accidentally before the journey.To fulfill Bibi's wish,her friends decided to carry on the plan.While Bibi was dead,she became a ghost accompanying her friends,and started their adventure.It is well-known that there are abundant ethical connotations in Tan's novels.As an excellent modern writer,she has never stop exploring new themes for her novels.From the perspective of ethical literary criticism,this thesis studies on the heroine,Chen Bibi's ethical identity's gradual transformation during the journey with the method of close reading.The thesis reveals the heroine's tragic character and the reasons behind it.At the same time,Chen Bibi,as well as her friends,serving as representatives of modern Americans,exposed the widespread ethical confusion and spiritual crisis in the American society to us.Through the analysis of the author's writing intention,the thesis shows Amy Tan's bold innovation beyond Chinese-American group to the whole American society and profound ethical connotations she conveys to us in the novel.This thesis is divided into six chapters.The first chapter gives a general introduction about Amy Tan and some of her representative works,stating the main content and creation background of Saving the Fish from Drowning.Meanwhile,it makes a relative thorough analysis about the research status of the novel at home and from abroad,pointing out the research value of this thesis.The second chapter introduces the perspective of ethical literary criticism used in this novel and its developing history in China.Meanwhile,it gives a detailed introduction of ethical identity terminology of ethical literary criticism and uses the heroine's ethical identity as an example to explain its connotation.The third chapter analyzes the various ethical identity aspects of the heroine,as a daughter,a women and a citizen,to show their incompleteness and the reasons behind them.The fourth chapter focuses on the sudden death of Chen Bibi which is the turning point of the heroine's ethical identity's redemption.After her death,Bibi became an omniscient ghost,following her friends along the journey.Chen Bibi's omniscience was the innovative point in this novel.It allowed Bibi to sense or even to control others' feeling,which provided the possibility of her ethical identity's redemption.Meanwhile,the omniscience of Bibi enabled her to discover the potential ethical confusion of her friends,and to reveal the ethical crisis in American society.The fifth chapter is the body part of the thesis.It shows the gradual transformation of Chen Bibi's ethical identity with specific description of the experiences during the journey.With the intensive analysis of Bibi and her friends' spiritual experiences,we could find the ethical confusion and spiritual crisis in modern American society and the cure that the writer tries to convey to the readers.The sixth chapter is the conclusion.It makes a general statement about the ethical identity redemption of the heroine,and shows the ethical identity confusion confronted by modern American society.It is high time that Americans should pay attention to their tottering spiritual world.Ordinary life is full of happiness and we should appreciate what we have.Family members need more communication and company.Based on her former mother-daughter conflicts,identity recognition themes,Amy Tan made bold innovation on the theme in this novel,which transcends Chinese-American group to the entire American society.It also shows Amy Tan's sense of historical responsibility as a writer,her continuous exploration of new problems and new solutions.