A Study Of Initiation Theme In The Goldfinch

The Goldfinch, the third novel of the American literary star Donna Tartt, was awarded Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2014. The novel, threaded by the protagnist’s entanglement with a famous, small-sized painting “The Goldfinch”, gives a picturesque account of the growth of a inflicted adolescent named Theo Decker in the first-person, who is traumatized by a terroist bombing which thoroughly altered the course of his life. In most of her novels, Tartt tends to give a detailed depiction of the young protagonist’s confusion, loss, bewilderment and redemption in his growth. In The Goldfinch, she also vividly portrays the protagonist Theo’s alienation with the others and community, and how he suffers from the sense of estrangement especially when faced with terrorist attack and the lack of parental love. This thesis further explores how Theo recovers from trauma and attains a new life, finally figuring out the essence of life under the guide of art and love.Theo’s initiation process and his experience of trauma recovery are mingled with each other, which constitute the mainline of the narration. Therefore, based on a close-reading of the full-text and adopting the initiation theory as the main approach, this thesis delves into Theo’s initiation process of going through trauma and towards maturity under the instruction of the initiation guide, with traumatic incidents and the search for the painting set as the background. This thesis is divided into three parts, namely, Introduction, the main body and Conclusion. And the main body mainly includes Chapter One, Chapter Two and Chapter Three. The introduction aims to offer an overall introduction about the life experience of author Donna Tartt and her works. It also introduces the story of The Goldfinch in brief and summarizes the literature review. The writing purpose and practical significance of this thesis is mentioned as well. Chapter One analyzes the initiation experience of protagonist Theo through a detailed exploration on the initiation writing from the traditional perspective. Chapter Two delves into Theo’s traumatic incident, symptom and recovery from trauma in his initiation. Chapter Three studies the intertextuality between the painting “The Goldfinch” and the protagonist’s initiation. Conclusion is a summary of the study of the initiation story The Goldfinch. This thesis, by combining the study of initiation stories and trauma literature, enriches the study of this novel and expands the research paradigm of initiation stories.In The Goldfinch, Tartt writes about the orphan Theo’s spiritual course of pursuing the meaning of life and blends some current elements such as the terrorism. In her initiative narration, Tartt not only pays attention to the individual life, but also gives a denouncement to terrorism through the intertextuality between painting and men, and shows the cherishing of art and the thinking of human fortune. Tartt offers a reference for modern men regarding how to get out of plight and dilemma, aiming at evoking concerns on the significance of existence in modern society.