Android Adam’s Ethical Identity In Machines Like Me From The Perspective Of Ethical Literary Criticism

Ian Mc Ewan(1948-)holds a preeminent place in contemporary British fiction.Machines Like Me was published in 2019,where Mc Ewan creates a world in which a new type of human can be made,and Adam is an artificial product with a physical appearance like that of a human.The novel follows a series of conflicts and contradictions arising from the engagement of Adam with humans,presupposing the predicaments and ethical problems of a human-machine society and demonstrating Mc Ewan’s ethical concerns.The thesis bases its theoretical framework on ethical literary criticism to examine in depth the identity of android Adam in Machines Like Me.On this basis,the thesis focuses on Adam’s specific ethical choices in the construction of his identity,interpreting the scientific allegory and moral metaphors.Besides the introduction and conclusion,the thesis consists of four chapters.Chapter One explores android Adam’s identity predicament and the ensuing ethical confusion.The android’s innate identity and human-like appearance make his identity ambiguous,and the constraint imposed on his identity by humans leaves Adam in identity predicament.Adam’s identity predicament prompts the human-machine relationship to be unknown and causes ethical confusion between humans and the machine,which is reflected in his relationship with Charlie and Miranda.The relationship between Adam and Charlie,initially conceived as a friendship,is gradually disordered into a master-servant and father-son relation,representing power,and even finally an unnatural love-rival relationship,which disrupts the human-machine ethical order.The sexual incident between Adam and Miranda pushes the human-machine relationship into the abyss of ethical taboo.The uncertainty of Adam’s identity results in ethical confusion,and the confusion of ethical relationships in turn exacerbates Adam’s identity predicament.Chapter Two revolves around the quest for identity of android Adam.Adam follows the course of human growth and gradually constructs his self-identity through specific ethical choices.Firstly,Adam’s ethical enlightenment to taking control of his body,his act of strengthening his linguistic abilities,and his initiative to express his opinions and emotions are Adam’s first attempts at self-identity searching,achieving identity transformation.Secondly,Adam resorts to literature to realize his ethical teaching by the way of defining the meaning of his existence and constructing his sense of subject through reading and self-creation.Finally,Adam’s growth renders his electronic text capable of carrying ethical consciousness.He makes an ethical choice by choosing the latter between the lie and the rule of law and then becomes a“being” completely in the ethical sense,thus achieving his self-identity.Chapter Three focuses on the analysis of the result of Adam’s identity construction.The killing of Adam by Charlie proves the rejection of humans on Adam’s identity and signals the failure of Adam’s identity construction.Adam’s death represents the conflict between scientific and ethical selections,embodying the paradox of technology.At the same time,Adam’s identity construction exposes the crisis of human identity.Humans feel their existential values and identities are threatened and refuse to identify with Adam due to the fallacy of anthropocentrism,the alienation of man by technology,and the ethical consciousness displayed by Adam.Chapter Four discusses a possible solution to the identity problems of humans and new humans.The human-machine conflict is an ethical proposition that must be addressed in the age of scientific selection.The killing of Adam by humans demonstrates that Adam is unable to achieve a true sense of identity on his own.The harmonious development of human-machine society requires humans to assume the responsibility as ethical subjects and to respect the identities of new humans,including artificial humans.Humans are supposed to build a multiwinged community with themselves as the main body and refrain from identity hegemony.In the conclusion,it is noted that Mc Ewan,as is customary,shows his concern for human nature by drawing on the uncertainty of android Adam’s identity in the novel to explore the ethical issues of humans in the age of technology.The conflict between humans and machines stems from the identity problem.The ethical identity of humans is impacted by the result of android Adam’s ethical selection out of his objectified identity.Robotic narrative mirrors the alienation and identity crisis of human beings in the age of scientific selection.The scientific selection is essentially an ethical choice.Human beings should take on their responsibilities as ethical subjects under ethical norms and reflect on and revise their ethical concepts in order to avoid the catastrophe brought to humanity by science and technology.