An Ethical Study Of Magic Seeds

As a prominent post-colonial writer,Naipaul has been widely acclaimed,and his works have won many awards.The novel Magic Seeds presents the predicaments and living conditions of the British Indians and native Britons in the 1970 s and 1980 s.Magic Seeds is full of multicultural collision and tension,presents the living conditions of people with multicultural backgrounds,and reflects the difficulties in identifying ethnic groups’ ethical identities.Scholars at home and abroad mainly focus on the novel’s themes,post-colonial elements,intertextuality,etc.In addition,its ethical interpretations are focused on marriage,with little attention to the ethical identity,ethical predicament,and ethical selection.Therefore,this thesis uses Nie Zhenzhao’s ethical literary criticism to analyze the ethical identity,ethical predicament,and ethical selection of the main characters in Magic Seeds,explore the reason behind their ethical selections and behaviors under the predicament,and reflect on the living conditions of ethnic groups,broadening the research of the novel.According to the ethical literary criticism,the ethical identity,ethical predicament,and ethical selection of the characters in Magic Seeds disclose their life and mental state.Under the influence of such factors as history and environment,their mental activities and actions also indulge in nihilism.Through the investigation,the study finds that the marginal characters Willie represents in the novel Magic Seeds struggle forward.They do not have the direction and the sense of belonging and lose the sense of existence,or they have lost themselves in the mainstream culture.Their ethical identity constrains their behaviors.They will fall into an ethical predicament once their behaviors do not align with their ethical identity.Under the predicament,they try to make ethical selections to change their situation.However,they are destined to fail due to the complexity of the ethical environment.In fact,the environment is one of the reasons for their predicament.To some degree,their disoriented lives also reflect the living condition of today’s mankind.