The Variation Of Sphinx Factor:an Analysis Of An American Tragedy From The Perspective Of Ethical Literary Criticism

An American Tragedy is a great ethical novel of Theodore Dreiser.The ethical literary criticism is proposed by Professor Nie Zhenzhao and his term of the Sphinx factor provides a good perspective to analyze the tragedy of Clyde Griffith.This thesis analyzes how a boy,growing up in a church family,controlled by the animal factor gradually grow from a pure and innocent teenager into a murderer.By analyzing the variation of the human factor and animal factor in Clyde,it reveals the strong ethical values in An American Tragedy.This article analyzes the core problem if a man should behave as a human or an animal brought about by the constant variation of the Sphinx factor.Sphinx factor consists of two parts: the animal factor and the human factor.The reason why people become ethical is that the advanced human factor can control the animal factor,which lets people make the right ethical selections in accordance with social norms.The struggle between the human factor and animal factor leads to the confusion of Clyde's ethical consciousness which promotes him to make a decision to abandon his own church family.What's more,because of the confusion of his own ethical identity,his animal factor is further controlled by the free will which catalyzes the variation of the animal factor.So that the animal factor eventually gets out of control and Clyde makes cruel ethical selection to murder his girlfriend who is pregnant.Finally,the mother's probation and Clyde's confession as a prisoner have awakened Clyde's human factor.The return of rational will prompts his ethical consciousness to get back,and he gets his own salvation at the last moment of the death penalty.Clyde's ethical tragedy is essentially caused by the animal factor that releases the free will in a special ethical environment.Then he has made a series of wrong ethical selections driven by irrational factors.By studying the essence of Clyde's tragedy,it arouses people's rational thinking on ethics and it will help people to make correct ethical selections driven by rational will.