The Pilgrimage To The Good

John Maxwell Coetzee,a contemporary South African Australian writer,has long been famous for his compassionate humanitarianism and profound analysis to human moral predicament.The Childhood of Jesus,published in 2013,intensively reveals his latest serious thought about human moral predicament and its corresponding salvation.The protagonist Simón is trapped with the moral predicament of solipsism in a quasi-utopian world named Novilla,because he has not been aware of Contingency as the nature of the world for long.This thesis takes Simón's revelation of solipsism and its salvation as the main line as well as Iris Murdoch's philosophical conceptions concerning the “Good” as the theoretical framework and combines Coetzee's novels,review articles and letters.And this thesis analyzes Simón's pilgrimage to the Good after showing eikasia and attentions to others,during which he constantly recognizes the Contingency as the nature of the world,and clears the mist of fantasy towards others from the following three perspectives: Simón's purifying reflexion from la réflexion complice to serious reflexion,his removal of lust from eros for three main females as well as his gradual reception of mysterious elements from Novilla and David.In this novel,Coetzee is not confined in the social cause of human moral deficiency any longer,but,based on that,launches a new research regarding the internal cause to moral predicament of contemporary people,with solipsism as its core.Simón's pilgrimage to the Good is a revelation for people living in such an epoch with faith lacking,namely,faced with complex moral environment,human being should spare no effort to escape from solipsism and show respect to others' subjectivity and uniqueness.