Youth And Growth

Stephenie Meyer and her works Twilight Saga have become a literary phenomenon in the first decade of the21st century. Twilight Saga consists of Twilight (2005), New Moon (2006), Eclipse (2007) and Breaking Dawn (2008). Since the publication of Twilight, the series has aroused great interest among readers. The thesis intends to explore how Twilight Saga meets the requirements of initiation stories in its major characteristics.The first part of this dissertation introduces Stephenie Meyer and Twilight Saga briefly. Then after summarizing the overseas and domestic literary reviews on Twilight Saga, the thesis points out that there has not been a systematic analysis on it yet from the aspect of Initiation Story. And that provides the author of this thesis a chance to make a research into it. The thesis author attempts to classify Twilight Saga into the literary genre of Initiation Story, because it conforms to the common characteristics of American initiation story both in content and theme. To further this study, the thesis then deals with the development of the coming-of-age story, from the Bildungsroman to American initiation story.Then in Chapter Two the thesis points out Twilight Saga is also a coming-of-age story of the protagonists. Discussing the characteristics of the Bildungsroman, the author concludes that the Bildungsroman is to some extent a fictional biography of the writer. Due to its highly autobiographical nature but in the form of novel, Twilight Saga might as well be regarded as a Bildungsroman. Twilight Saga focalizes primarily through the consciousness of Bella Swan, and the story of Bella is in part the story of its writer Stephenie Meyer, so basically Twilight Saga can be regarded as an initiation story mainly about Bella Swan’s growth.The thesis continues to demonstrate that the protagonists achieve their maturity with the evolution of the plot, which is a usual structure for an initiation story. The thesis points out that it is in the life journey that the characters have accomplished their maturity, primarily by the examples of the characters in the books. Since it is a traditionally patriarchal society, the thesis firstly illustrates the male characters’ growth in the novel in Chapter Three, through the examples of Edward Cullen and Jacob Black. Both Edward and Jacob in their life have experienced a certain "ritual" and learned to know who they are and learned to negotiate with the world around, which is also an initiation.In Chapter Four the thesis continues to analyze the growing journey found in female characters. Bella Swan experiences several changes in her life at Forks, and her growth is inevitable. There are also other female characters who achieve maturity in the books. For example, the only female werewolf Leah Clearwater who has faced two losses in her life and these two changes in life has forced her to grow up and achieve her maturity in the end. And Rosalie Hale also has several growths as the story advances. Starting from their different life experiences, the author concludes that female growth faces more difficulties in the patriarchal society, and it is more difficult for the female to reveal her true identity in the society.From the prospective of literary interpretation, analyzing the plot and theme of the story, this thesis explores the characteristics of initiation story woven within the text and the process of growth that protagonists have. The author concludes in the fifth part that Twilight Saga belongs to the literary genre of an initiation story, and wishes the study of Twilight Saga can be of a little help to the creation of China’s initiation stories.