The Jewish Ethical Identity Of The Narrator In Babel's Novels

Isaac Babel was born in a Jewish family in Odessa,Russia,in the late 19th century.He is a famous Russian short story writer,and his representative work are the collection of short stories:Odessa Stories and the Cavalry.According to the chronological sequence of the story,all Babel's short stories can be regarded as a continuous whole.The ethical identity of the narrator "I",whose Jewish identity is the core throughout the text,is constantly challenged in the process of growing up,self-tearing and restructuring,or self-doubt and denial after colliding with other ethical identities,which leads to the unclear orientation of the narrator's ethical identity and the corresponding ethical dilemma.This paper interprets the narrator's Jewish ethical identity in Babel's short stories by means of literary ethical criticism,and combs its changing track and causes,then explains the ethical value and teaching significance of the works.The full text mainly includes three parts:introduction,main body discussion and conclusion.The first part is the introduction,which mainly introduces Babel's life and creative overview,reviews the research status of Babel's works at home and abroad,and introduces the significance of topic selection and research methods,research content and innovation.The second part is the main contain of the thesis,which is mainly divided into four chapters:Chapter one discusses the germination of children-narrator's ethical consciousness in the Jewish environment and culture,and the contradictory state of cherishing and resisting Jewish identity caused by learning burden and rigid Jewish doctrine.Chapter two elaborates the situation of the young narrators in the series of Odessa Stories who further miss and reject their Jewish ethical identity after entering the vast society and witnessing the legend of the Jewish strongman in Odessa's hometown.Chapter three discusses that in the cavalry series,young Lyutov,in the process of participating in the revolution,faced with different ethnic groups and groups such as Cossack and Jews,the Jewish ethical identity constantly drifted and swayed,making it more difficult to identify and search for the Jewish ethical identity.Chapter Four explains the evolution of the narrator's Jewish ethical identity and its causes.With the increase of age and the change of environment,the narrator's ethical identity has also changed with certain logical rules,showing the characteristics of paradox,transboundary and dynamic.The change of ethical environment,the change of the narrator's outlook on life,values,world outlook and the law of individual physical and mental development all lead to the emergence of multiple ethical identities.At the end of the chapter,the relationship between the narrator and the writer is briefly analyzed.The ethical attitudes of the text narrator and the writer overlap to a great extent,but they ean not be equated.The third part is the conclusion,which clarifies the ethnic colour and the time mark of the Jewish identity of the narrator.The narrators difficult ethical identity search implies the writer's own identity choice and ethical situation,and highlights the practical significance and teaching value of Babers ethical writing.As a representative of Jewish writers,Babel's identity dilemma is not an individual,but a true portrayal of the whole Jewish nation's Millennium history.It also illuminates the sobbing years of the Russian Silver Age and even the whole Jewish nation in the twentieth century.