To Retrive The Lost Kite

Khaled Hosseini (1965-) is a contemporary famous Afghanistan American writer. The KiteRunner is his first novel, which also makes him well-known. Since its publication in2003, TheKite Runner has become an international bestseller. It has been published in70countries and in55different languages. This novel has received many awards that it has been on the New YorkTimes bestseller over five years and has climbed up the Amazon bestseller for more than131weeks. In2006, Khaled Hosseini was named a U.S. goodwill envoy to the United NationsRefugee Agency. The film with the same name was released in2007, which was made by theDream Works. In2008, Khaled Hosseini was awarded the world’s bestselling writer.The Kite Runner tells a story about initiation and redemption of the protagonist Amir in thefirst person narrator. From the perspective of the unique characteristics of the initiation story, thisthesis will explore that how The Kite Runner depicts a story that Amir dare face his past,achieves self-salvation and fulfills his initiation; this thesis will also analyze the influencesexerted by the key characters. Furthermore, the writing techniques adopted in The Kite Runnerwill be discussed in this thesis, including the open-ending, the first person narrator and thesymbolism, and the roles that they play in describing the protagonist’s initiation and portrayingcharacters will also be discussed in this thesis.This thesis can be divided into six chapters.Chapter One is an introduction of this thesis. The author of this thesis firstly introduces thelife experiences of Khaled Hosseini and synopsis of The Kite Runner; then a briefly introductionof the significance of the study. The last part of this chapter is the framework of this thesis.Chapter Two is about literature review and theoretical basis. The first part of this chaptermainly focuses on the researches on the initiation story and The Kite Runner at home and abroad;the second part is about the introduction to the initiation story, including the definition, the origin,and the characteristics of initiation story.Chapter Three explores how The Kite Runner reflects the characteristics of the initiationstory from the aspect of content, which will be analyzed from the autobiographical componentsand the theme of initiation.Chapter Four concentrates on the characters, exploring how the specific images in theinitiation story influence the protagonist’s growth. The specific characters in the initiation storycan be classified into positive guides, negative guides and initiation companions.Chapter Five discusses The Kite Runner from the aspect of writing techniques, includingopen-ending, the first person-narrator, and symbolism.Chapter Six is the conclusion of this thesis. This chapter summaries the content and the significance of the thesis and also the limitations is pointed. Through the analysis of The KiteRunner from the aspects of content, characters and writing techniques, it is found that The KiteRunner is a typical initiation story, and the most important thing is that the writer adoptssymbolism to show the protagonist’s growth. The studies of the initiation story benefit thedevelopment and growth of the youth.