The Study On Ethical Dilemma And Redemption Of Song Of Solomon

"Song of Solomon" is one of the most valuable era novels by Toni Morrison (1931 —), who is a well-known contemporary American writer. The central clue of novel is Milkman’s personal growth and self-pursuit, involving four generations of Solomon family, telling the story of psychological trauma to the black people caused by American slavery and racial discrimination from the 17th century to the 20th century. The novel both shows the foundation effect of African traditional culture on the development of black people, and points out the development of the black people under "double consciousness" psychological state in real society; both reveals the cruel social reality by the means of realism, and reproduces the magic African myths and legends and traditional culture using magical socialist way. This research employs ethical literary criticism as the main methodology, through a close reading, putting the emphasis on ethical environment, ethical dilemma, ethical choice and ethical redemption of African American community.There are five parts in this paper. The instruction part reviews Toni Morrison’ creation progress, introduces significance of the research and the current situation, and also gives some brief explanation to the research methods. Chapter 1 analyses the ethical environment. Return to the ethical scene of Song of Solomon, discusses the tragic fate and historical scars of the black community under the dual oppression of slavery and racial discrimination. For more than two hundred years of the human and animal mentality under the identity of translocation, it was difficult for the black community to find the identity of the "human". Instead they have been " non-human" in United States. Chapter 2 analyses the ethical dilemma. From two aspects of family and race, the black community faced serious ethical dilemma. From the perspective of family ethics, taking Ruth Foster Dead and Macon Jr. for example, the black community was generally in the ethical dilemma of the family ethics, which was difficult to maintain the established family ethics order, and result in individuals that could not shoulder the responsibility of family ethics. From the perspective of race ethic, with the common action of the black values and the white values, the black community generally showed a state of confusion. Not only did they subject to their own discrimination of black identity, but also for the white values of infinite yearning, into the black spirit of "white" or "death" of racial ethical dilemma. Chapter 3 analyses the ethical choice, discussing ethical choices made by the black community when they are in a double dilemma in terms of family and race. From the perspective of family ethics, caught in the dilemma of the plight of incest, Ruth made the inward choice of self-enclosed; caught in the dilemma of the plight of Aversion to relatives, Macon made the outward choice of vanity. But these all could not return to the essence of human. From the perspective of race ethic, in the face of the white mainstream values, Macon Dead I chose to give in and forget, Macon Dead II chose the hesitation and deviation, and Guitar Bains chose the violence of the narrow nationalism. These three types represented the choice of other black people in same state, but all were not reasonable race development path. Chapter 4 is the ethical redemption. When falling into ethical dilemma, the American black community was hard to extricate itself by its own ethical choice. Therefore, by portraying the "pilot" Pilate and Milkman, Morrison implies two ethical redemption:Pilate’s spiritual guidance and Milkman’s self-growth. Milkman was the most common part of the black community, so his spiritual flying gave a strong sense of confidence and pride in the black community. In essence, the ethical redemption is still the pursuit and persistence of the identity of "human":human has time and space, so they need history and future, which is determining the ethical identity, finding historical roots, exploring the development way of the nation; human has social characteristics, so they need a harmonious and equal collective, involving family ethics groups based on love and ethnic ethics groups based on harmony; Human has thinking attributes, so they need a firm belief, which is having confidence in the development of our nation, and not only to be a "human", a "black human", but also to be a "black American human".