A Study Of The Theme Of Initiation In Henry James's What Maisie Knew

Henry James (1843-1916) is one of the greatest novelists, essayists and critics in American literature. He is considered as one of the key figures of the 19th century realism in American literature. Furthermore, Henry James is also well-known as a pioneer of the school of"stream of consciousness". He is a master at describing characters'inner activities and has a good command of the"international theme", thus, he is acknowledged as a writer of"psychological realism". Henry James has made lots of experiments upon the art of fiction to innovate the writing technique. His great achievements have made people regard him as the greatest writer in the world literature.What Maisie Knew was written in 1897. After it was published it was criticized and neglected because of its complicated syntax and writing techniques. From the 1930s with the soaring of his reputation people began to pay more attention to his works. Many critics have studied the novel from the perspectives of morality theme, images and writing techniques, etc. People seldom studied it from the aspect of initiation according to the materials available to us. This paper aims to analyze Maisie's growth journey from innocence to maturity by using the theory of initiation story, and points out the knowledge's importance for adolescent growth.There are three parts in this thesis, including the introduction, the main body and the conclusion. The main body consists of three chapters. Introduction gives a brief introduction to the author Henry James, the novel What Maisie Knew, the critical literature review of the work, the central argument of the thesis, and the theory of initiation is also given in the part. Chapter One mainly talks about the innocent Maisie through her inability to understand the complicated adults world and misjudgments by outer observation. With the analysis, the ignorance of Maisie is clear. Chapter Two mainly discusses the growing-up Maisie through analyzing her growing process from a silent onlooker to an active participant and points out Maisie gradually recognizes the truth and finds out the evil around her. Chapter Three mainly deals with the mature Maisie through discussing her employment of adults'social skills, independence and autonomy, and her maturity in emotions. At the end of the novel, Maisie has got rid of innocence and becomes a mature young lady. The part of Conclusion gives a summary of the previous contents, points out that the novel reflects the growth process of the female Maisie. Maisie's growth is the result of her self–exploration and self - discovery depending on her sensitive and acute observation of the adults'world and consistent reflections on her own experiences.