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Since the 1980s,the free market model has gradually replaced the governmentcontrol model and became the guiding policy in the development of American society.In the process of the transition,a number of scandals have emerged in the Americanbusiness community,causing wide concern from the public.For a time,businessethics has become a hot topic discussed by media and academia.Franzen’s severalmost popular works were influenced by the public opinion at the time,and he showedgreat interest in public issues in the novels.Inherited from the critical tradition ofsocial fiction,he discussed corporate manager’s social responsibility by applying hottopics such as environmental pollution and financial fraud to the main plot inFreedom,forming his own unique writing style.

Specifically,Franzen chooses Protestant ethic as the counterpart of the freemarket ethic in Freedom.He transformed the Protestant ethic and the free market intotwo different business concepts,attaching them to positive characters and negativecharacters respectively,and using the conflicts and arguments between them toexpress his opinion towards free market ethic.The Protestant ethic in Freedom showsthe secular concept of responsibility,that is,the emphasis on personal socialresponsibility and the sense of belonging to family and local community in everydaylife;the emphasis on hard work and the rejection of fraud and speculation in business.The Protestant ethic of corporate social responsibility is typically adhered to by thepositive characters in Freedom,whereas the negative characters are more inclined toembrace the free market,believing that the primary goal of business is to generateprofit.Criticism of the mainstream ideology of the free market in Freedom wasprovoked by the comparison of the two ethics.Author thus expressed his negativeview towards freedom in free market.

2.2 Social responsibility in Freedom

When discussing the issue of the social responsibility,Franzen focuses on thesocial responsibility of business managers and the individual responsibility in a localcommunity.Market liberalization brought economic recovery,but at the same timeproduced many drawbacks,such as bankrupt entrepreneurs,collapsing financialinstitutions,serious environmental disasters,loss of wilderness areas and decreasingrare species.He introduces Walter as the voice to call for the“righteous”,reveals thedark side of the financial entity.The lack of social responsibility in a local communitybrings chaos psychologically.By solving the conflicts,the characters finally findpeace in heart.Thus readers can have their own perception on the idea of“freedom”,selectively adapt to the new value and acknowledge the validity of the old value.

Franzen shows social responsibility in the perspective of corporation.Corporation is the basic economic organization in the modern capitalist system.As economic entity,a corporation,is a self-governing entity engaged in the fabrication,administration and service operations with the intent of generating profits.Theoperation mode of a corporation in the modern society is to maximize the exploitationof the abundant resources contained in vast land and the surplus labor value ofworkers,and convert them into profits.The profits are then used to further expand thebusiness or to venture capital inves本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。