Young Waifs On The Road

This thesis is the first attempt so far in the domestic research circle to make a thorough comparison and analysis between Rabbit, Run and Tripmaster Monkey, which are two of the important literary works in1950s and1960s in the history of American literature. The author of the present thesis adopts the basic theory of initiation story to analyze the growing phases of the two protagonists in order to further illustrate John Updike and Maxine Hong Kingston’s social outlook.This paper begins with the similar or different growing phase of the two protagonists. By analyzing how they deal with their existing problems in the society, the author of the present thesis comes to a conclusion that John Updike and Maxine Hong Kingston hold the same attitude toward the American society in1950s and1960s, during which the turbulence of the society gave rise to the existing predicament of individuals. The two protagonists, Harry Angstrom and Wittman Ah Sing, both experience three stages during their initiation. The first one is "from bewilderment to flight", during which they are quite nostalgic for their glorious past and nauseous for the mediocre present. As a result, they flee from the world of frustration and boredom to find the real meaning of the life. Then it comes to the second stage of their initiation—"from ordeal to epiphany". In this stage, both of them suffer a lot from the conflict between autonomy and socialization. However, they are not struggling alone. Each of them has spiritual mentors in the process of their growth. Harry has three negative spiritual mentors who bring about the degeneration of the hero, whereas the three positive spiritual mentors in Ah Sing’s life successfully awaken his ethnic consciousness. Then at the epiphanic moment, they acquire true knowledge about themselves and the society. Different epiphany results in different journey circles. Harry takes a circular path in order to resist compromise, while Wittman follows a linear growth in order to build a "Pear Garden" in the west.Harry and Ah Sing have different and even opposite growing results. This is largely related to the authors’ ethnic identities and personal experiences. As a native American writer, Updike explicitly expresses his dissatisfaction toward the society. However, because of her Chinese-American identity, Maxine Hong Kingston could only be implicit and euphemistical in exploring the history, culture and identity of Chinese Americans.