Abstract: Judi Picoult is a contemporary American best-selling author. She has sharp eyes on hot issues and writes about the conflicts among people and their ethical dilemma with delicateness. Her novel My Sister’s Keeper describes a story of Sara, her husband and their two daughters. Their young daughter Anna is born specifically to save her sister who suffers leukemia, when she is told to donate one of her kidneys to her sister, and then she decides to prosecute her mother. This paper aims to study the ethical dilemma faced by the characters and their ethical decisions from the perspective of Ethical Literary Criticism. By exploring the conflicts of the major characters and their hard choices, this paper points out that with the development of technology, our systems of ethics are seriously challenged.

Key words:  ethical dilemma; conflicts; Ethical Literary Criticism

Contents

Abstract

中文摘要

1. Introduction .1

1.1 Author and Novel1

1.2 Literature Review3

2. Ethical Literary Criticism.3

 2.1 Definition4

2.2 Previous Studies of Ethical Literary Criticism .6

3. Analysis of the Ethical Dilemma in My Sister’s Keeper.7

3.1 Mother’s Ethical Dilemma.8

3.2 Kate’s Ethical Dilemma10

3.3 Anna’s Ethical Dilemma.13

4. Conclusion.17

References.19