Identity And Initiation—Analysis Of Relationship Between Father And Son In The Kite Runner

The Kite Runner,written by Afghan-American author Khaled Hosseini,has enjoyed much reputation since its publication in 2003.It was granted many awards and became one of the bestsellers in America.This novel has been translated into 55 different languages and published in about 70 countries.Besides,it was adapted into a movie in 2007,and influenced millions of people.The Kite Runner is a story of a young man's initiation from innocence to maturity.The protagonist struggled to establish a closer connection with his father.Scholars at home and abroad have made many researches on this novel from different perspectives,such as cultural identity,redemption and initiation,racial discrimination and so on.This thesis employs Erikson's psychosocial development theory to analyze the relationship between the father and son in this novel.By studying the changes in the father and son relationship,this thesis tries to raise young people's reflections on their own development and advocate more parental and public concern on teenagers' growth.This thesis consists of three parts,namely the introduction,main body and conclusion.The first part is an introduction.It briefly introduces the author,Khaled Hosseini,and the main plot of The Kite Runner.Besides,it makes a literary review of previous researches on this novel,and puts forward the purpose and innovation of this thesis,which is to study the changes of the father and son relationship and presentation of these changes in the protagonist's development process.In the main body,this thesis presents Erik Erikson's psychosocial development principle,which says that people develop through a predetermined unfolding of personalities in eight stages.All the stages are closely connected to one another,and there is a certain aim to achieve at each stage.The success or failure in all the previous stages partially determines the progress through each stage.Erikson's psychosocial development principle is the foundation in understanding people's development.With the help of this principle,this thesis analyzes the complicated relationship between the father and son,and focuses on the changes at adolescence stage and young adult stage.This conclusion part makes a brief summary of what has been analyzed.By studying the father and son relationship,this thesis makes the conclusion that the father stands for a family order,and he can guide or restrain the son's development.The interaction between the father and son plays an important role in the son's identity and initiation.Hence,the father can advance the son's development and help the son to initiate into society only when he realizes the son's demands at different development stages.