Beyond Egoism

Ian McEwan is adept at excavating people's innermost emotions,exploring the philosophy of existence.Atonement,one of his significant works,reaped many important prizes with its touching plots and profound implications.Scholars and researchers also give much attention to this novel.It tells a story that the heroine who is indulged in the egoism committed an unforgivable crime,later realizes her crime and atones for it by communicating with and caring for the other,and then finally resurrects as the moral self.One of the problems that the novel reveals is the limitation that the egoism causes to the self,the absence of communication between the self and the other can be resolved through the philosophical ideas of Levinas.So the thesis,under the guidance of the philosophical theory of Levinas,attempts to discuss how to encourage individuals to step out of the egoism and approach the other from the perspective of the self-other relationship.The first chapter mainly probes into the reasons why the heroine commits the crime.It is out of her immersion in the self-consciousness and the pursuit after the self-defined order.She refuses to communicate with the outer world and the other,and is reluctant to understand the existential status of the lower class other in the Tallis house.The Tallis house can be regarded as a epitome of British hierarchical society which is fused with class consciousness and class concept.For the upper-class Tallis family,the inferior employees are viewed as the other who are suppressed and ignored in this environment.The domination of the egoism as well as the lack of effective communication between the self and the other are universal problems existing in the interpersonal relationship while that inflicts damage on the other.The second chapter demonstrates that the protagonist gets rid of her egoism and begins to approach the other.When she realizes that the tragedy is caused by the egoism,she abandons the superior identity and the intense self-consciousness.She establishes her real self and the existential meaning by interacting with the other in the outer world.Besides,her speech with the “face” of the other from lower class like soldiers and nurses also strengthens her cognition of the alterity.The approaching of the self to the other marks an important step during the shifting process of their relationship.The self abandons the desire to totalize the other and to eradicate their heterogeneity.The last chapter makes exploration into the protagonist's rebirth as the moral self.As a writer,she completes her ethical responsibility in her novel.She reveals truth,giving justice and perfect ending to Cecilia and Robbie.On the other hand,McEwan also deliversmoral enlightenment to readers through Briony.Love should be the supreme principle of people rather than the absolute freedom of the self as what Levinas pursues.The self should respond to and help the other to complete moral responsibility.The thesis centers on the discussion of the self-other relationship through the lens of Levinasian philosophy.It aims to provide a feasible solution for the complicated and contradictory existential relationship.That is to escape from the restraint of the egoism and put the other before me,as a result of which the conversion of the self can be completed.In the meanwhile,the thesis intends to put emphasis on the moral value of literary works to reverse esthetic cognition.