Ethical Predicaments In Ian McEwan's Amsterdam

Ian McEwan is one of the most remarkable and prestigious writers in contemporary British literary field. His early works secured him a certain notoriety for producing shocking fictions and he was thus dubbed “Ian Macabre”. His later works have turned the claustrophobic world of sexual and social aberrations to broadened concerns which openly engage in complex ethical, social and historical issues in public spheres. However, what remains constant in his works is McEwan's sensibility and obsession with the ethical issues. Amsterdam, the Book Prize winner in1998, reveals the corrupted society in the detrimental years of the Conservative rule in the 1990s' Britain and delineates individuals' reactions to moments of crisis which combines the private with the public spheres.Applying an ethical approach, this thesis studies the ethical predicaments in Amsterdam. It is discovered that there are three types of ethical predicament in the novel, including ethical dystopia, ethical disharmony and ethical dilemma.They serve as Ian McEwan's particular ethical concerns in the 1990s' Britain.The thesis examines the ethical dystopia from two aspects, which are the moral corruption in the political area and the decadence of the press. Combining the text with historical background, the government officials' abandonment of ethical principles and the news workers' regular violation of the law disclose the ethical deterioration in public life in the Conservative-governed Britain. While analyzing the ethical disharmony, this thesis focuses on the distorted marital relationship in privatedomain and the disharmony between nature and human beings in the public sphere in relating to Ian McEwan's own life experience. It argues that male dominance ruins marital relationship while human beings' inventiveness and intrusion to the nature leads to environmental crisis, trapping the characters in an inescapable predicament.Finally, the thesis investigates the ethical dilemmas encountered by the protagonists in the novel. It probes how Ian McEwan puts individual characters against one another at crucial points of decision during which they must choose between self-gratification,self-preservation, and genuine benevolent action. With the interaction between his evolving literary techniques and his presentation of moral issues, the thesis argues that Ian McEwan uses storytelling as a cautionary morality tale, thus expressing his views on how the real world artists or common people should behave.The thesis concludes that reading Amsterdam enables the reader to explore Ian McEwan's view on ethical inquiry and his understanding of the role of fiction in contemporary context. By intertwining history and personal experience with the literary text, this thesis also emphasizes the great ethical effects the fiction has on the reader.