Interpretation Of Three-layer Alienation In Convenience Store Woman And Earthlings

Doris Lessing(1919-2013),awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2007,is hailed as the greatest female writer with a strong sense of social responsibility and moral commitment after Virginia Woolf in British literature.The Good Terrorist(1985),nominated for the Booker Prize in the year of its publication,proves Lessing’s first work to return to realistic narratives after her “inner space” novel experiments,receiving widespread attention in European and American literary circles.The novel tells the tragic story of Alice,who has good intentions but fails to confirm her identity and makes wrong ethical choices that bring tragedy to both herself and others.It is a story of “both good and evil”.Adopting the approach of ethical literary criticism,this thesis,centring on the line of Alice’s irresolution between the two opposing identities of “good girl” and “terrorist”,tries to unearth the deeper ethical causes of the heroine’s decadence to be a “good terrorist”.This thesis firstly returns to Alice’s disordered family and delves into its multiple effects on her ethical view and self-identification.In this lavish middle-class family,implanted with elite culture and education,Alice accepts the imposed role of “mother’s good daughter”,but grows into a rebellious outsider owing to her lack of ethical consciousness and unethical behaviours,which results from the disordered family ethics and the incomplete ethical enlightenment from parents.Next,Alice’s identity exploration in abnormal love is closely scrutinised.Driven by the devastating irrational will,she is subject to the emotional and financial exploitation of her homosexual boyfriend,playing the role of his “mother”.Whereas,her weak ethical consciousness prompts her to focus on her need to be an independent individual.However,she suffers from identity anxiety owing to the dominant irrational will.Finally,the thesis discusses the social environment and dissects the tragedy caused by her conflicting identities and the ethical dilemma she confronts in the patriarchal society.In the late 1970 s,England is marked by various social problems,acute class conflicts,and breaches of established ethical order.Alice is itching to participate in revolutions to eliminate social injustice and to demonstrate her power as a female,but she is only found compelled to embrace the imposed status of “the angel in the house” by the traditional requirements.Because of the contradictory identities,she can’t adhere to ethical rules and is reduced to being a terrorist.Thus,this thesis argues that the external causes of Alice’s ethical tragedy are the improper family education and the destruction of socialethical order;the internal ones lie in her lack of sufficient ethical awareness and incorrect view of identities,which lead her to make wrong choices.The Good Terrorist embodies Lessing’s profound ethical concerns and humanistic sentiments.In this novel,Lessing provides readers with a strong moral warning and emphasizes the importance of maintaining ethical rationality through Alice’s tragic ending.Meanwhile,focusing on Alice’s complex and multiple identities,it represents females’ predicament between the traditional interpretations and the modern values of women,full of contemplations on women’s destiny.This thesis carries out a new interpretation of The Good Terrorist from the perspective of ethical literary criticism,sheds light on the ethical value of contemporary British literature in its rational reflection on human society,as well as provides new research perspectives on Doris Lessing and this literary text.