A Study Of The Grass Is Singing From The Perspective Of Ethical Literary Criticism

Doris Lessing is one of the most important Britain female writers of the contemporary period. She is also the world renowned literary masters. Her first publication "The Grass Is Singing" published in1950. This book burst upon the European literary scene with an explosive vitality. It is also the beginning of "separatist civilization". It takes place in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), in southern Africa, during the1940s and deals with the racial politics between whites and blacks in that country (which was then a British Colony). Many scholars have studied the novel from different angles, including psychology, psychoanalysis, feminism, post-colonialism, existentialism and so on. However no scholars discussed the ethical thought in this novel up to the present. The so-called ethic literary is an angle from the ethical point to study the literature, the writers, and the readers. It is integrated with the times closely, so has a strong practical significance."The Grass Is Singing" concerned about the natural and social reality, as well as the relationships between people. This is just Ethical Literary criticism coincides with the content. Lessing never respect her own moral ethics in the novel,"The Grass Is Singing" ethical orientation is very obvious. From Lessing’s biography, speeches and essays, we also find her moral ethics. English literature has a historical tradition of attention to ethics; the novel is most closely related to the ethical."The Grass Is Singing" reflects the ethical tendency is closely related with its historical background. This article is based on writer and the work to resolve the novel from the perspective of literary ethics. The structure of the paper borrows from Professor Yuan Kejia’s "On European and American modernist literature "structure. This paper study the novel from four aspects, that is man and nature, man and society, people and the others and man and self. The paper also summed up the ethical demands of Lessing.The body of the paper is divided into four parts. The first part analyzes the relationship between human and nature. First, the comparison of Dick and Charlie reveals the relationship between human and nature in this novel is possession and exploitation; second, the relationship between Mary and nature reveals human are always want to escaped nature. Lessing expressed her ethical demands:against the possession and exploitation, advocates harmony, close to nature. Second part, by two central figures:Mary and Moses. We can study the human and social relations in this novel:women must pay a heavy price for y for freedom and race doctrine to be undone. In turn reveals the ethical ideas of Lessing:women should rely on "strong will" seek independent; hypocritical racial system will eventually go bankrupt. Third part, three pairs of relations:relations of whites and blacks, women and men, farmers and small farmers of the ethical relationship between the novel human with others:bullying, estrangement and utilitarian. This part showed Lessing’s views on people and the others:one kind of good relationships. Fourth part, by analyzing the internal and external causes of Mary’s self-division summed up the ethical demands of Lessing in man and self:self-face to seek the sacrifices made by the freedom and dreams, has the absolute initiative and willpower in order to maintain self-unity.Lessing depicts the fate of the African colonial by some representative figures. She exposing the trauma caused by the slavery of the entire human. Mary reflects Lessing’s concern of the lives of women and women’s psychological problems. Description of the interpersonal relationships in the novel depicts the apathy among people. In this novel Lessing express her own ethics:hypocritical racial system is bound to perish; women must be face a painful price to seek freedom; mutual love between people; person with self-coordination needs maverick spirit. At this point the ethical analysis in this novel is finished; Lessing’s ethical claims of various relationships can be demonstrated. We also have a more in-depth understanding of this work and Lessing. And the value and contribution of Lessing construction of humanistic spirit is self-evident.