Reconstruction Of Moral Selves In Cormac Mccarthy’s The Road From The Perspective Of Ethical Literary Criticism

Cormac McCarthy is regarded as one of the most important writers in contemporary America. Since his debut in literary circle in1965, Cormac McCarthy has published10novels and is honored with a series of major rewards, such as National Book Award. His works have received wide attention from literary critics and readers, which affirms his particular contribution to American literature.The Road is Cormac McCarthy’s latest masterpiece and it wins the Pulitzer Prize for fiction and James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction in2007. McCarthy pays close attention to southern and western America and dedicates himself to exploring themes like violence and evil in human nature, thus his novels possess an ethical profundity. Unlike his previous nine novels, The Road is a post-apocalyptic fiction about a father and his son’s arduous journey in a future world after a destructive catastrophe, and it reveals the ultimate combat between the brightness and darkness of humanity. Violence and evil, though still depicted, are no longer the thematic concerns; the novel explores the virtuous side of humanity and sings a paean to the moral qualities such as goodness, courage, faith and love and the never-ending pursuit towards better moral selves as well.This thesis focuses on the reconstruction of the protagonists’moral selves from the aspects of human-society relationship, human-other relationship and human-self relationship to explore the theme of humanity in The Road by means of ethical literary criticism.The Road presents an extremely deteriorated human-society relationship in the future world. The breakdown of social ethos is mainly due to the decline of individual’s morality. The prophetic vision of the novel conveys the author’s implied criticism of contemporary American society if it is interpreted in the historical background. The social environment highlights the value of moral selves’reconstruction; also, it suggests that the reconstruction depends on the improvement of interpersonal relationships and the effort of every individual rather than a sudden change of the society.The characters in The Road are catalogued into three kinds:the evil mob, the ordinary tramps with moral vagueness and the good people exemplified by the father and the son, forming multiple interpersonal relationships. The changes of interpersonal relationships shape the protagonists’moral selves in different ways. The father and son’s unyielding spirit to fight the evil, the caring and helpful heart shared with ordinary tramps and the connection with other good men endow their moral selves with moral qualities such as courage, gratitude, kindness, responsibility and love.During the journey, the father and the son pursue higher moral selves in terms of human-self relationship. Through the repentance for moral flaws, constant quest and philosophical meditation, the father finally achieves his self-sublimation at his sacrificial death. The son, while keeping his innate goodness and divinity, grows and matures under the father’s devoted education. He finally emerges as the ethical center of the new world and brings hope of revival to the destroyed world. Therefore, the journey of the father and son symbolizes mankind’s course of chasing honorable morality and humanity.Cormac McCarthy in The Road criticizes the crisis of dehumanization in contemporary American society, encourages an ethical pursuit towards goodness and moral sublimation through every individual’s effort so as to create a better social ethos and to flourish the brilliance of humanity. In his percipient and gritty post-apocalypse of a civilization’s downfall Cormac McCarthy prophesies a bleak future of contemporary American society, but he finally shows an affirmation of the value of life and humanity. The novel warns the readers to face the dark side in human nature, to carry forward goodness, and to pursue an elevated ethics by making concrete effort because the hope of the future depends on their own moral choices. To sum up, Cormac McCarthy’s deep concern for human condition, devoted rumination on present social problems and constant scrutinization on humanity are thought-provoking and inspiring, and they are of practical significance today.