Liberal Imagination

E.M.Forster is one of the best British writers in the 20 th century.His works are not only the social custom description of the English middle class,but also contain a large number of exotic descriptions.He walked away from the British empire and looked back,presenting a world vision as seen by a 20th-century liberalist.Forster 's world vision has a consistent ideological background-liberalism.Under the influence of British tradition,family environment,educational experience,and previous thinkers,Forster formed his own liberal thought,which became the creed of his life.The world vision depicted by Forster mainly included the following sections:Firstly,the vision of Britain,where Forster was born,grew up and aged.He deeply analyzed the symptoms of Britain and its people which is mainly represented by the middle class.He found the causes of these symptoms,and tried to establish an anti-traditional family that broke the class through the connection of personal relations.Forster also described the confrontation between urban England and rural England.Although in reality,rural England was gradually swallowed up,in Forster' s vision of Britain,the ancient countryside always occupied an important position and became the spiritual home of the British.Secondly,the vision of South Europe.Forster made several trips to Italy and Greece,which left a deep impression on his mind.Forster described a free,unrestrained and passionate social atmosphere,and highlighted the stereotype and dullness of the British people significantly and vividly through the contrast.He also made these protagonists complete their self-discovery in the trips to South Europe.Greece not only exists in the real world,but also in the symbolic world of Forster,representing a beautiful state of harmony between man and self,man and nature.Finally,the Indian vision.Forster made three visits to India,and finally combined these trips into A Passage to India,his final novel.This time he put the British in a more difficult environment,in the colonial background,in the attempt to link east and west,in the mysterious culture atmosphere.He revealed the national limits of liberal,and tried to pass such an environment to the British once again for the pursuit of self without any political complexion.These visions intermingle and consider each other,constituting a world vision at the declines right after flourish of the British empire in the 20 th century.These visions belong to that era and Forster only.For it is unique under his liberal view.After APassage to India,Forster remained the voice of liberalism even though he stopped writing novels.In the rest of his life,Forster still kept individual value and personal relationship as the highest pursuit.He used his own meager power to fight against the world that was increasingly sliding into the abyss.