A Study On Mariam’s Awakening Of Female Self-Consciousness In A Thousand Splendid Suns From The Perspective Of Initiation Story

Khaled Hosseini is a very influential Afghan-American writer in contemporary American literary world.In 2003,he won many literary awards for the publication of his debut The Kite Runner,which made him a famous writer.Up to now,Hosseini has published three novels,all of which are set in Afghanistan.Hosseini presents the world a more real Afghanistan through his novels.A Thousand Splendid Suns is the second prominent novel of Hosseini,which comes off the press in 2007.The novel tells a moving story of two Afghan female characters that have different background and experience hardships together in war-torn Afghanistan.Once published,it gains widely acclaim around the world and draws great attention of critics.Most critics study it from the perspective of new historicism,narratology and feminism.But few scholars have analyzed the initiation theme in the novel in terms of Initiation Story.As a literary genre,Initiation Story focuses on the initiation process of the protagonists from innocence to awakening or maturity.According to the main structure and characteristics of initiation story,this thesis demonstrates how the protagonist Mariam awakens and gets mature step by step under the guidance of positive spiritual guides,which can be divided into three stages:the stage of innocence,the stage of setbacks and the stage of maturity.By probing into the awakening journey of Mariam’s self-consciousness,this thesis reveals the miserable living situation of Afghan women under the oppression of patriarchy and draws a conclusion that only when Afghan women achieve their awakening of female self-consciousness and resist bravely can they change the oppressed fate completely and gain physical and spiritual freedom finally.Interpreting the novel A Thousand Splendid Suns from the perspective of initiation story not only provides a new perspective to analyze this novel,but also enriches the study category of the theory of initiation story.Meanwhile,the thesis believes the growing experience of the protagonist Mariam is also very meaningful to the growth of modern young women.For contemporary females,only when they are aware of the importance of self-consciousness can they remain independent in marriage and obtain the rights to pursue a happy life.