An Interpretation Of Suffering In The Child In Time From The Perspective Of Levinasian Ethics

Ian McEwan is one of the most popular literary masters in modern British literary world.He is well known to readers for his subtle narratives and gloomy grotesque themes.The Children in Time is considered to be the representative work in his transitional period.Since then McEwan starts to divert his attention from focusing on the dark side of human nature to the contemplation of society and family.This work has also won him the Whitbread Fiction Award of the year for its excellent creative techniques and unique significance.The novel mainly tells the self-healing journey of the protagonist Stephen who losses her daughter.The plot is also mingled with a series of fantasy stories of his family members and friends.Levinas is a famous French philosopher who has experienced the genocide massacre of Nazi.Because of his lifelong commitment to thinking about atrocities and subverting Western ontological ideas,the relationship between self and others is a core content in Levinas' s ethics.Therefore,this article will analyze the suffering of the characters in the novel The Children in Time based on Levinas' s ethical thoughts,aiming to find out the protagonists antagonistic relationship with the other and the ultimate essence of their mental liberation.This thesis will be divided into five chapters.The first chapter mainly introduces the biography of the writer,the outline of the work,the literature review at home and abroad,and the brief summary of Levinas' s ethical thoughts and the framework of this paper.The second chapter,the third chapter and the fourth chapter constitute the main body of the thesis,mainly selecting three figures to analyze the ethical significance behind the phenomenon of suffering.The second chapter focuses on the suffering of Stephen's bereavement,and explores the ethical dilemma,ethical choice and ethical incentives of the protagonist in the novel.Meanwhile,the three parts also analyze the ethical meaning and motivations of moral behavior.The third chapter focuses on the suffering of self-alienation taking place in another protagonist Charles Darke,and reveals the utilitarian nature of self-other relationship and the confusion of subjectivity constitution.The fourth chapter attempts to clarify moral enhancement and self-transcendence entailed in the spiritual and physical suffering female characters endure in maternity.The fifth chapter,as the general conclusion of the thesis,summarizes the ethical problems hidden behind protagonists' suffering and further demonstrates Ian McEwan's realistic values in human and non-human areas.