A Mirror Of Ethical Violation

Doris Lessing (1919-) is one of the greatest English writers in the world. Being aproductive writer of high praise, she became a winner of Nobel Prize for literature in2007.Her life experiences in Southern Africa are the sources of her literary creation. So her worksare like mirrors to reflect many social problems in southern Africa, such as ethnic conflicts,gender relations, social and political issues and so on. Because of its unusual themes, her firstnovel The Grass is Singing draws many critics’ attention. Various western literary theorieshave been applied to analyze this novel, mainly from the perspective of post-colonialism,feminism and psychology. However, ethical literary criticism has infrequently been employedto interpret this novel.The Grass is Singing uncovers the difficult situation of the white female in the Africancolony. The thasis makes a concrete text-analysis of the novel and intends to explore theethical violation between family members, the white and the black, the whites and nature byemploying the relevant theory of literary ethical criticism and concludes the importance ofestablishing the sound ethical morals in society.The thesis can be divided into three parts.The first part is the introduction, giving a general introduction to Doris Lessing and herfirst work The Grass is Singing, reviewing the previous study about this novel at home andabroad. It also gives a general introduction of ethical literary criticism.The second part consists of three chapters. The first chapter interprets the violation offamily ethics. Through analyzing estrangement of family members, betrayal in marriage andlove, this chapter exposes that Mary’s parents and Mary herself contribute to her tragedy.Proper family ethics proposes that family members should keep a harmonious and intimaterelationship with each other. However, Mary, including her parents, fails to build up a happyand harmonious family for various reasons. The second chapter interprets the violation ofinterpersonal ethics. This chapter focuses on the isolation among the whites, the inequalitybetween the white and the black and white female’s marginal position in a patriarchal society.They are all white colonizers, but keep an isolated relationship with each other. The rich sneer at or even plunders the poor. Needless to say, the white colonizers maltreat the black nativesso much so that they treat them as a machine. Because of Patriarchal ideology, Mary is put ina marginal status. She is deprived of the opportunity of displaying her talents and eventuallywalks towards tragedy. Through analyzing such abnormal relations in South Africa colony, itis shown that male-dominant society and racial discrimination are the major reasons forMary’s tragedy. The third chapter interprets the violation of natural ethics. Driven byutilitarianism and anthropocentrism, white colonizers always maltreat the nature withouttaking its future into consideration. As a result, ecological balance on African veldt is smashed.Mary feels a strong repulsion for the African veldt, so she alienates herself from nature.Evidently, the colonizers fail to come close to and respect nature but misuse or take control ofit. Their behaviors have seriously violated natural ethics. It is certain they will finally getrevenge from the nature in future.The third part is the conclusion. On the basis of the three chapters above, it can beconcluded that human beings should by no means violate social ethics and natural ethics.Only in this way can human beings construct really harmonious society and ecological nature.It can be clearly concluded that Doris Lessing also advocates that human beings should notonly treat others equally but also live in harmony with nature.