A Study Of Ethical Theme In Zadie Smith's On Beauty

The young British writer Zadie Smith(1975-)enjoys populrity as soon as she publishes her first work White Teeth.The style of wisdom and humor and solicitude of optimism and catholicity enhance writer's literary reputation.Her works emphasize themes of race,religion,multiculturalism and so on.Besides,her works also provide rich perspectives for many subsequent works.On Beauty is the third novel of Zadie Smith,which deeply interprets the ethical problems embodied in her works.With the combination of theoretical analysis and close reading,the thesis mainly analyzes the ethical theme of this novel.By analyzing the text from the perspective of ethical literary criticism,this thesis excavates ethical value and moral tendency in order to reveal this work's moral warning and teaching effect to the society.Firstly,the thesis analyzes the marriage's alienation of the Belseys and the Kipps from the perspective of family ethics.Kiki's rebellion to Howard and Carlene's compromise to Monty are regarded as two clues to analyze.Men of two families make ethical mistakes,impelled by animal factor.Two females from different families make different ethical conduct due to male's ethical mistakes.Kiki who is controlled by rational will dares to fight against male,but Carlene makes another ethical choice.It reflects a strong desire that the writer establishes an ethic based on an equal marriage.There is one more point that the thesis discusses “the other” position of Carl and Bailey from the perspective of social ethics.Carl possesses the strong desire,but he can't exist in America without any care.Bailey without rational will and morality will be deserted.It reflects the racial discrimination,and it expresses the writer's anxiety to race.Lastly,this thesis discusses the relation between man and nature from the perspective of ecological ethics.By comparison with the English countryside without humanistic care,the American town with humanistic care is harmonious.By ecological descriptions between them,this thesis reveals writer's moral feelings to nature and attaches great importance to nature's value as human friend and the home of the living.The ethical theme in On Beauty reflects the relations between man and others,as well as that between man and nature.Zadie Smith reveals potential issues about ethic and morality by interpreting family,society and ecological ethics.The purposes of the thesis are that human can pour attention into these ethical issues and abide by the moral law so that human can build up a harmonious society.