Ethics Narrative "Atonement" Is

Ian McEwan is one of the most the most influential writers in Englishliterature at present. After his first collection of short stories “first love and lastrites” won the Somerse Maugham Award in1975, he had get the nomination ofBook Prize for four times, and finally Amsterdam won in1998. The atonementwhich was published in2001, also won various honors, including the NationalBook Award.Since Atonement publication, it has been discussed and criticized in paper fromdifferent area by critics. In terms of content，the novel follow the ultimateexploration of the essence of man’s soul which Ian McEwan is interested in.Compared with “terrorist” theme of the story content before, this novel is tender,but following rules is not Ian McEwan’s style. Though the theme of Atonement isrelatively mild, however the application of the modern narrative skills is originaland critical. Basing on analysis of Atonement’s narrative pattern, I try to find outethical issues which are covered by modern narrative skills. I hope I can find outwhat is Ian McEwan really want to tell the reader.Ian McEwan is one of the most the most influential writers in Englishliterature at present. After his first collection of short stories first love and last riteswon the Somerse Maugham Award in1975, he had get the nomination of BookPrize for four times, and finally Amsterdam won in1998. The atonement which waspublished in2001, alsowon various honors, including the Natonal Book Award.Recently, researching of Ian McEwan is diversities. For example, some focuson his reconstruction of gender relations, some concentrate on child themes of hisworks, some are interested in his excellent narrative techniques. I consider modernnovel techniques and serious ethical theme as the research object, using a newresearching theory, and try to illustrate the ethical significance of the narrative skills.This is a bold attempt of combination of formalism researching with contentresearching.My thesises mainly use the method of careful reading, then analyzes thenarrative techniques and ethical theme of Atonement. At the same time, adopting thenarratology theory、the narrative ethics and the metafictional theory, I try toillustrate the ethic thesis of the novel.In the first part of the paper, from the perspective of the story in narrativetheory level, I analysis the multiple points of view which determine the ethicssignificance of the novel. Different points of views make the whole novel meaning more rich.In the second part of the paper, focusing on narrative discourse, I reorganizethe time of the story and try to find out the differences from the original story,which cause the ethical dilemma.In the third part of the paper, through the analyzing the techniques ofmetafiction, I try to illustrate the pattern of the conversation in atonement. And thenexplore the ethical dilemma in the course of creation of a novel.