Echoes From The Third Space

And the Mountains Echoed is the third novel written by Khaled Hosseini,an American writer whose motherland is Afghan.When the book was published,it was well received,and today,with the increasingly obvious post-colonial literary studies,the novel also carries an extraordinary significance.The novel is divided into nine chapters,with the sibling of Abdullah and Pari’s vicissitudes of life as the main thread,with 1952 to 2010 for nearly 60 years of countries such as Afghanistan history as the background,telling the story of one independent yet interwoven story.Combined with Homi K.Bhabha’s post-colonial theory,a grand theme of the novel unfolds—in the face of the dilemma of identity choice in an intercultural situation,what decision should one person make?From the perspective of Bhabha’s post-colonial theory,six representative characters in the novel are deeply analyzed in the exploration of identity.Apart from the part of theory framework,the main body includes three parts.In the first part,the cross-cultural situation of Pari and Nial is analyzed,explaining that they both struggle in cross-cultural situation for a certain identity,but end up with failure due to various causes.The characters of Idris and Timur are introduced in the second part.In common with Pari and Nila,they both live in a cross-cultural situation as well,however,through a struggling dilemma they finally choose their identity as an American.This part shows that although one person lives in a cross-cultural situation,he can also find his identity and inner peace.In the third part,another kind of people living in cross-cultural situation are introduced—Amra and Markos.They do not limit their identity within their own nations,and beyond the bound the nation,they stand on the perspective of all human beings to help people in need,and to love people deserved to be loved all around the world with their broad mind.This part points out that living in a cross-cultural situation,one can transcend one’s national identity,and build up a cosmopolitan thinking of loving the whole world.Through the analysis above,the core idea of the thesis emerges—people in the world,whoever in colonial position or colonized position,can transcend the narrow view of national identity,and stand on the perspective of all human beings to help people in need,and to love people deserved to be loved according to our wits,our thinking and our merciful mind.