An Analysis Of The Bonesetter’s Daughter From The Perspective Of Initiation Story

The success of the novel The Joy Luck Club made Amy Tan (1952-) well-known as“Teller of the Chinese Stories”. The Bonesetter’s Daughter is her fourth novel that has strongcharacteristics of autobiography since it is conceived on the experience of her owngrandmother, mother and herself. Different perspectives are adopted to interpret this novel bymany critics, but few critics have analyzed it from the perspective of initiation theme.This thesis applies the theory of Initiation Story to analyze The Bonesetter’s Daughter. Itmainly interprets the different stages of the protagonist’s process of growth as well as thefeatures and the similar plot of the initiation story in this novel.Chapter one mainly talks about Amy Tan’s life and her work The Bonesetter’s Daughter.In this chapter, it also presents the literature review which contains the domestic and abroadstudy about this work, and then puts forwards the significance of this thesis. Chapter twomainly discusses the development of initiation story, elaborating the definition and thefeatures of Initiation Story. It attempts to construct a theoretical framework for the thesis.Chapter three analyzes Ruth Young’s process of growth. It can be divided into three periods:the innocent childhood; the puzzlements and difficulties after entering the society; thematurity period after reading her mother’s manuscript. In the end of the novel, Ruth gets herself-realization. Chapter four mainly discusses the features of Initiation Story which areembodied in The Bonesetter’s Daughter from these aspects: autobiographic elements, theinitiation guides on the road and the similar plot of Initiation Story. Chapter five is theconclusion. It is concluded that the novel has all the major features of Initiation Story.Meanwhile, this novel is the narration about the Chinese Americans. The protagonist’s growthexperience has lessons emerged from other Chinese American communities. What’s more,analysis of this novel from the perspective of initiation story provides a new perspective forthis novel.