Reconstructing The Spiritual Home:A Study Of The Existential Crises In The Children Act

Ian Mc Ewan’s The Children Act presents a panorama of modern people’s living predicaments personally and socially and in particular the profound impact of spiritual crisis on modern people’s life.By adopting relevant studies on spiritual crisis at home and abroad together with Abraham H.Maslow’s hierarchy of needs in the analysis,this thesis attempts to explore appropriate approaches to reconstructing the spiritual home through analyzing the spiritual crises embodied in the novel,the socio-cultural environment in which the characters live and the protagonists’ responses to the problems in their inner worlds.Characters in the novel are going through severe spiritual crises such as spiritual vacuum,behavioral inability and existential alienation,which are mostly caused by the problematic socio-cultural environment including absence of love,deficiencies of religion and imperfections of the legal system,which thwarts people’s dominant needs.Distressed and lost,they are trying to restore their spiritual world but eventually their life goes in different directions.Through analysis of the reasons for spiritual crisis,this thesis tries to further understand human nature and its relationship with the outside world.Through investigation into responses of the main characters(Fiona,Adam and Jack)to the problems in their inner world,this thesis reveals the value of literature and art,the importance of self-reflection and interpersonal communication and the necessity of subject consciousness in the modern society,thus encouraging people to pay attention to the spiritual world and build a harmonious society.