External Growth And Inner Redemption

Afghanistan-American writer Khaled Hosseini is one of the most outstanding novelists of the 21st century. His maiden novel, The Kite Runner, was first published in 2005. Once published, his work was widely welcomed and highly praised by readers all over the world. As a new work, The Kite Runner won many prizes in the literary field of English-speaking countries and had made the record of taking up the top position of nine major book-rankings for over ten weeks. On the other hand, because it is a new work, research and studies on it are few and far between.This thesis takes the English edition of The Kite Runner as its subject of analysis. After reviewing both domestic and foreign research on the book in question, the author systematically interprets the present literary review concerning it, and presents a thorough analysis into the theme of growth and redemption in The Kite Runner under the guidance of the bildungsroman theory and Freud's structural theory of psyche. This paper is based on the moral trend and the redeemable conscience reflected in the creation of the text. It subsequently analyzes the theme of growth and redemption in the work and reveals the significance of conducting research into the theme. Meanwhile, the external and inner contradictions are explored through analyzing the text. Finally, a solution to the contradictions is offered, i.e. to enable the ego try to find a balance between reality and primitive drives in satisfying both the id and the superego, keeping the personal structure a perfect status and complete self-redemption at last.This paper is divided into five chapters. The introduction includes four aspects. They are Khaled Hosseini's life and his works, the literature review on The Kite Runner, the purpose of the thesis, and its structure. The second chapter mainly introduces the bildungsroman theory and Freud's structural theory of the psyche. At the same time, it argues that the significance of these two theories combined convey the theme of growth and redemption in the thesis. The third chapter is about the approaches of the bildungsroman theory applied in the text of The Kite Runner. In the fourth chapter the structural theory of the psyche is used to analyze Amir's -the main character's-experience of inner growth and redemption. In the last chapter, a conclusion is made to prove that these two analyzing methods applied in the study of the text-The Kite Runner with the same purpose are equally important and that they mutually support each other. Meanwhile, as a typical example of the bildungsroman heroes, Amir experiences the inevitable hard external and inner growing process as required in bildungsroman. Moreover, the expected objectives and the limitations of the study on this novel are put forward and concluded in this part. Meanwhile, further studies on the book in question are expected to arise in the future.