On The Ethical Quandary In Don DeLillo's Underworld

Don DeLillo,as one of the representatives of postmodern literature in America,has attracted the attention of scholars worldwide with his 16 novels,a collection of short stories and several plays.Concerns of consumerism,terrorism,the development of science and technology and so on are the major topics that have provoked extensive attention in most of his works.Among all Delillo's works,Underworld,his 11^th novel,published in 1997,is for now the longest and the most ambitious work that described the scene for almost half century about America in Cold War era with over eight hundred pages.There are many ethical and moral problems that are worthy to be discussed in Underworld.With the help of the theory of Zygmunt Bauman,George Moore and other ethicists,this thesis will analyze the ethical quandary in contemporary society based on the plots and characters in Underworld.This thesis is majorly composed of three parts.Before main body of the thesis,introduction of Don DeLillo and his works,literature review of Underworld,and review of ethics in literature will be summarized first.The first chapter of this thesis begins with the analysis of ethical confusion demonstrated on the Shays brothers,Nick and Matt,through their stories in Underworld.In the course of pursuing moral life,Nick and Matt's irresolution as well as their struggle against the action of avoiding responsibility were described clearly by DeLillo.With the help of their experience in life and work,they tried their best to find the most suitable way for themselves to overcome their anxiety when they were in huge moral uncertainty.Also,the moral indifference of Sister Edgar and tourists who were from Europe and visited South Bronx are discussed in this part to show the phenomenon of moral wane prevailed in present society.Briefly,this part mainly concerns about the ethical and moral issues that major characters faced in Underworld.The ethical crisis caused by technology in the universe of science and technology will be the major concern in the second part.In Cold War era,nuclear weapons were the protagonists in the stand-off between the superpowers:the U.S.and the USSR?Union of Soviet Socialist Republics?.However,the work of weapons making and the war indirectly occurred between the superpowers brought many problems elsewhere that are ethically and morally unreasonable.Technology is good at fragmentizing totality into pieces and solving problems one by one through focusing on one point at a time.Totality,therefore,is ignored,which plants the seeds for ethical crisis in technology world.Based on the theory of ethics,the third part focuses on the thinking of the ethical and moral problems derived from Underworld,trying to find the causes of those issues in present society.Since moral responsibility always throws people into limitless uncertainty and anxiety,people tend to be immoderately dependent on laws and rules and live a legal life instead of the moral one,and their ability of moral judgment is expropriated.In the world of technology,all the work is divided into so many small tasks,which leads to a situation where no one could be responsible for the whole work.Various excuses are always emerged as ways of self-consolation for people who try their best to shirk responsibility.In the eyes of ethicists,moral self has no home to stay and is gradually forgotten.From DeLillo's Underworld,many ethical and moral problems that are discussed can also be uncovered in present society.In the meanwhile,through the ethics theory of Zygmunt Bauman?1925-2017?,George Moore?1873-1958?and other ethicists,the source of the occurrences of these issues will be further investigated.