From Kitchen God's Wife To Lady Sorrowfree: Growth Of The Protagonist Weili In The Kitchen God's Wife

The Kitchen God's Wife is the second novel of the famous Chinese American writer Amy Tan. The story is about how a woman living in Old China, a feudal patriarchal society, has grown from an oppressed Kitchen God's wife being forgotten by people to an independent Lady Sorrowfree who dares to voice in modern society. Initiation story, as a literary subgenre, has a strong tradition in the American literature. Many scholars read the novel from perspectives of multiculturalism, post colonialism, narratives and feminism, etc. Among them, however, seldom analyzes it from the aspect of initiation story according to the materials that are available. This paper thus aims to make an analysis of the initiation process of the protagonist by applying the theory of initiation story.The thesis consists of six chapters. Chapter one, the introduction, is devoted to the discussion of the author Amy Tan, the novel The Kitchen God's Wife, including both the novel and the prototype of the myth, as well as the current research status abroad and at home. Chapter two discusses the origin and development of American initiation theory, then further demonstrates different versions of definitions as well as its general characteristics. Chapter three and chapter four mainly talk about the text from aspects of contents and plots and structure respectively, showing a process that how the protagonist Jiang Weili(later renamed as Wennie) goes through many hardships and grows from perplexity and innocence in childhood to spiritual and material maturity in a particular period. Moreover the mentors, either positive or negative, are the integrated parts during the growing process of the protagonist. Influenced by these persons as well as the imposed view of the world and values, the adolescent girl constantly adapts herself to the society and finally she accomplishes the psychological maturity. Chapter five makes an analysis of the initiation theme of the novel. As a female descendant of Asian immigrants, the author Amy Tan was considered by the American mainstream society as marginal person in a particular historical period. The rewriting of Chinese myth and her family life story to a certain extent reflects the ethic female initiation view of the author.Chapter six, the conclusion, summarizes the researches mentioned above and further points out that The Kitchen God's Wife is an initiation story which mirrors the growing process of the female protagonist. After undergoing the spiritual epiphany and rites of growth, the heroine completes her initiation journey, growing from innocence to maturity and from the passive acceptance of life setting to the gaining of self-salvation.