An Interpretation Of Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake From The Perspective Of Ethical Literary Criticism

The Namesake is the debut novel created by Jhumpa Lahiri,an Indian-American writer.Its publication has aroused widespread concern among critics and numerous relevant research articles on it spring up constantly.From the perspective of ethical literary criticism,this thesis will explore the ethical gist hidden in the depth of the novel by analyzing all ethical knots including ethical situation,ethical choice,ethical identity,ethical conflict and ethical consciousness contained in the story,which helps to broaden the research on the novel and give readers a full insight into Jhumpa Lahiri's ethical ideas.This thesis is composed of an introduction,three major chapters and a conclusion.The introduction part briefly introduces Jhumpa Lahiri and The Namesake,combs through the status quo of research on The Namesake at home and abroad,and makes an introduction to the research basis,research significance as well as ethical literary criticism.Chapter two firstly analyzes the ethical environments the main characters including Ashoke,Ashima,Gogol and Moushumi live in from three aspects: Indian culture vs.American culture,family environment vs.social environment and the third culture.Secondly,it expounds the ethical choices made by the four major characters:Ashoke and Ashima choose to stick to Indian culture,Gogol determines to attach himself to American culture,while Moushumi makes up her mind to betray her marriage with Gogol and flee to France.Chapter three firstly dissects the transformation of the relevant characters' ethical identity resulted from their different ethical choices from the aspects of national,family,and sexual ethical identity.Moreover,by focusing on Gogol,it interprets the ethical conflict the characters are faced with due to their ethical identity transformation from the perspectives of“human and self”,“human and others” and “human and society”.Chapter four attempts to elucidate the awakening and returning of characters' ethical consciousness after their ethical reflection,which is finely embodied in Gogol's final reconciled position and Ashima's return to India.The conclusion part summarizes the research findings of this thesis.Due to her own identity as a descendant of immigrants,Jhumpa Lahiri is penetrated with unique feelings for immigrants' life.With the delineation of the ethical phenomena in immigrants' life,Lahiri delivers her ethical values and endows the novel with instructive meaning.Meanwhile,Lahiri seemingly putsforward a living solution for immigrants,that is,living by never forgetting native roots while embracing foreign culture.