Genre Analysis Of The Kite Runner As An Initiation Story

After the occurrence of the world-shaking 911 attack, the world began to fix their attention on Afghanistan, a destitute, vulnerable and enclosed inland country. The Afghan-American writer Khaled Hosseini’s novel The Kite Runner depicts Afghanistan with splendid culture and history which experiences successive disputes and wars. Since its publication, this novel has already been translated into fifty-five languages and published in more than seventy countries across the world. Till now, it is widely acknowledged by readers and scholars from all over the world. It hit the Amazon bestseller and has remained on it for more than 131 weeks. It has also ranked the first on the New York Times bestseller for as long as five years. In the meanwhile, it has become the recommended book of American Library Association and the best choice of French Book Club. In 2007, the novel has been adapted into a film. His second novel A Thousand Splendid Suns has been published in the same year. His latest work And the Mountains Echoed was released in 2013. Khaled Hosseini was awarded the world’s bestselling writer in 2008.The novel is set in Afghanistan first and then America. The plot stretches over thirty years from the end of Afghanistan’s monarchy to the invasion of the Soviet Union and onto Taliban’s collapse. The novel narrates an Afghan boy’s happy childhood and his psychological journey to salvation for sins he has committed during his childhood from the first person point of view. The novel succeeds in revealing a true but unknown Afghanistan by exquisite narration. The well-rounded characters, the well-designed plot with incessant suspenses and Afghans’ glorious virtues presented throughout the novel make a profound impression on the readers from all over the world and also afford readers a brand-new understanding about the country which is always labeled by terror, turbulence and poverty.Introduction gives a brief introduction of the author and his other works, the background country of the novel Afghanistan, current research status at home and abroad on this novel. The outline of the thesis and the aim of my study will be introduced as well.Chapter One is mainly about the theory adopted in the thesis. In this chapter, various definitions of initiation story, its basic features, its origin and development are introduced as well.Chapter Two analyzes how The Kite Runner inherits the features of initiation story in terms of theme. This chapter mainly develops the discussion from perspectives of the emotional maturity, the formation of faith and the enhancement of male consciousness. In the end of Chapter Two, the artistic devices used to reinforce themes of the novel including metaphor and symbolism will be explored deeply.Chapter Three analyzes how The Kite Runner inherits the features of traditional initiation stories with regard to characters. This section centers on two groups of characters, namely initiation guides and initiation companions who play an indispensable role in the protagonist’s growth.Chapter Four explores how The Kite Runner inherits the features of traditional initiation stories with respect to the structure. This part primarily develops the discussion by analyzing the open-ending and the typical pattern of the process of growth.Conclusion summarizes the dissertation in terms of theme, characters and structure and further categorizes the novel into the group of initiation story.