On The Spirit Of Game In Fairytale Narration: A Comparative Study Of Peter Pan And Monkey King As Naughty Boys

This thesis is aimed to examine the fundamental essence of the Spirit of Game onnaughty boys through a comparison between Monkey King in Chinese writer Wu Cheng’en’sJourney to the West and Peter Pan in British writer J.M Barrie’s Peter Pan. The discussion iscarried out in light of character categorization in Northrop Frye’s Archetypal Theory. Naughtyboy was and is now commonly neglected in literary character’s type. As two representativesof Naughty Boy, Peter Pan and Monkey King are worth comparing as they have muchsimilarities and differences. On the whole, the issue is explored from the perspective ofoccurrence, plot, theme, characters and narration. The thesis comprises five main parts. Thefirst part starts from a basic view of J. M. Barrie and Wu Cheng’en’s different backgroundsand the basic introduction of research background at home and abroad of the twomasterpieces.Chapter two discusses children under Chinese and western background. Then, the truecharacteristics of Naughty Boy are first introduced under the shadow of Spirit of Game.Chapter Three, I first interpret Northrop Frye’s Archetypal Theory, especially hisresearch on literary characters. Frye categorizes fictional characters into five different sorts inaccordance with heroes’ power. It includes myth, romance, high mimetic mode, low romanticmode, and the ironic mode. This power of action is closely related to the amount ofsuperiority of characters compared with our own selves. In light of Frye’s categorization ofliterary characters, Peter Pan and Monkey King could be compared as the divine beings,romantic heroes, tragic heroes, pure naughty boys and the satiric clowns.Chapter Four discusses the similarities and differences between Peter Pan and MonkeyKing systematically. Their similarities lie in Spirit of Game, Graphic Worship, and faith ofGood Prevails Evil. Conversely, their differences lie in the attitudes towards society, behaviorand speech, and social orientation, which are reflected in Utopia and Dystopia, Childhood andAdulthood and Humanism and Feudalism.The last chapter points out that the endeavor of this thesis is to seek out true Spirit ofGame from different types of naughty boys. After comparison, the essence of Spirit of Gamecould be found in four aspects: Power of Playing, Consciousness of Romantics, Sense of Lifeand Philosophy of Aesthetics. Therefore, a true naughty boy should satisfy the requirement oftrue Spirit of Game.