Genre Analysis Of Anne Of Green Gables As An Initiation Story

Anne of Green Gables is the first long novel of famous Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery, published in 1908. Its publication lightened the spirit of Canadians of that age, giving a place to Canadian native literature in the literary world. It received both appreciation and criticism, but few researches then. Until 1970s and 1980s, the studies and comments on Anne of Green Gables began to bloom from the perspectives of feminism, education and religion, etc. Anne of Green Gables widens the theme and horizon of children's literature, making itself a classic work on children's initiation. It corresponds to the patterns and characteristics of initiation stories in contents, characters and structure. Therefore, the author of this paper believes that Anne of Green Gables is a typical initiation story.This dissertation intends to explore how the novel manages to use the specific literary genre, the Initiation Story, to show the growing process of the heroine. This dissertation will be divided into six sections:Introduction: This section gives a brief introduction of the author's life and works and the novel's main plot, position and current research status, as well as proposing the central topic of this dissertation.Chapter One: Initiation Story: a Specific Literary Genre. This chapter mainly traces back to the origin and development of the Initiation Story and analyzes the common characteristics of this specific genre.Chapter Two: Analysis of Anne of Green Gables from the Perspective of Contents. In contents, the story adopts autobiographical components based on the author's own life experiences, involving the initiation of the protagonist and obvious conflicts between the protagonist and others or the community.Chapter Three: Analysis of Anne of Green Gables from the Perspective of Characters. This chapter explores the characters in Anne of Green Gables who exert influence on the initiation of the protagonist, including initiation guides and initiation companions. They play a vital role in the growing process of the heroine.Chapter Four: Analysis of Anne of Green Gables from the Perspective of Structure. This chapter mainly studies the major characteristics of Anne of Green Gables in structure, such as formulated plot pattern, open-ending and narrative point of view. Conclusion: This section summarizes this paper in terms of its successful manipulation of this specific literary genre—the Initiation Story and its significance in the development of this literary genre.