The-Betrayal-and-Redemption-of-Growth—-An-Analysis-of-The-Kite-Runner-from-the-Perspective-of-Initi.doc

The Betrayal and Redemption of Growth
— An Analysis of The Kite Runner from the Perspective of Initiation Novel

Contents

Abstract
Outline
Introduction
Ⅰ. Initiation Novel………………………………………………………………………………….1
Ⅱ. The Synopsis of Story……………………………………………………………………………2
Ⅲ. Symbolization of Kite……………………………………………………………………………5
IV. The Cruelty and the Warmth of Human Nature…………………………………………………5
Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………….………7
Bibliography

The Betrayal and Redemption of Growth
—An Analysis of The Kite Runner from the Perspective of Initiation Novel

Abstract: The Kite Runner is the first novel of Afghan-American author Khaled Hosseini. It mainly talks about an inexcusable era, an impossible friendship and indestructible love. This paper uses the methods of symbolism and illustration, discusses Amir's spiritual journey and human betrayal and redemption.
Key words: initiation novel; friendship; betrayal; redemption

成长的背叛与救赎——从成长小说的角度解读《追风筝的人》

【摘要】 《追风筝的人》是美籍阿富汗作者卡勒德·胡赛尼的第一部作品，主要讲述了关于不可宽恕的年代，不可能的友谊以及不可毁灭的爱。本文从成长小说的角度，运用象征和举例的手法，分析阿米尔的心路历程，探究人性的背叛与救赎。
【关键词】 成长小说；友谊；背叛；救赎

The Betrayal and Redemption of Growth
—An Analysis of The Kite Runner from the Perspective of Initiation Novel

Thesis statement: This paper uses the methods of symbolism and illustration, combines the growth progress of Amir, analyzes the betrayal and redemption from the perspective of initiation novel.

Outline:

Introduction
I. Initiation Novel
1. The features of initiation novel
2. The discussion of the betrayal and redemption
3. The derivation of The Kite Runner
II. The synopsis of story
1. The development of friendship
A. The difference of social class, race and religion
B. The most intimate partner in the childhood
2. The breaking up of the friendship
A. The kite competition
B. Brave and loyal Hassan and his bitter experience
C. Framed and expelled Hassan
3. Self-salvation
A. All kinds of unbearable past events
B. Saving the son of Hassan
4. Sublimation of emotion
A. Repentance in public
B. The sense of mission and responsibility
III. Symbolization of kite
IV. The cruelty and the warmth of human nature
1. Learning redemption in the growth
2. Realizing growth in the redemption
3. Inspiration
Conclusion

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Tian Yuan 2012051106
Tian Yuan
English 2012051106
Wang Lanming
May, 2016
The Betrayal and Redemption of Growth
—An Analysis of The Kite Runner from the Perspective of Initiation Novel

Introduction
This novel tells the story of the protagonist Amir’s journey from selfishness to redemption, shows the breaking up of the friendship and the cruel nature of human. The book has won numerous awards since its publication in 2003, meanwhile, it has a record that occupied the first one in the nine books list ten weeks. In 2006, The Kite Runner became the first choice of the French book club and recommend by the American Book Association. Such a wide concern of the work, coupled with the profound connotation and creative approach to the study, naturally, it will set off a boom. As the critic Zhang Yiwu thinks: As The Kite Runner, by real delicate feelings of grasping and moving plot, the main attraction is the reader who is medium income, aspire certain aesthetic taste... but China was not developed this market, which is a potentiality.[9] In a word, no matter from the literary height or the market reaction, it is very necessary and timely to know the extent of The Kite Runner.
In this novel, Amir’s family, friendship and conscience are destroyed and tortured, tracing the source is the hurt from him father, from his father's behavior. We can see the destruction at that time under the system of marriage’s shackles and grade. Then we can see the broad social life picture. So in the surface The Kite Runner takes Amir’s “private events” as narrative core, actually integrated displayes other people's experience, living habits, affection, friendship and race. Naturally, Amir is influenced by the complex cultural background and it is the projection of psychological activities. For example, kite competition in Afghanistan, Taliban's cruel punishment for adultery. It is Amir’s personal opinion, also the whole nation's history and experience. That is said social changes and cultural background in The Kite Runner are just the background of Amir’s growth, but the background more or less projects the social situation at that time, touches the topic of human war and peace. Although The Kite Runner is recent years’ literary work, many scholars have studied it. In 2011, the first periodical of Modern Chinese discussed The Kite Runner in the growth of Amir. The author started with the humble role of Hassan, from the side to prove Amir's growth and salvation of the road. [7] Lin Dan published Exile of the Soul -- the Interpretation of Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner. From the individual wandering experience to analyze those groups which outside the mainstream of civilization, to interpret their struggling soul. Let us see the human nature of tears and the power of shock. [5] Besides, The Kite Runner: a typical initiation novel by Zhou Ling. It discussed the kind and evil of human nature from the perspective of initiation novel.[8]
In order to more objective and comprehensive display the nature of this novel, this paper will expands the scope of knowledge according to the characteristic of the initiation novel, uses the methods of metaphor and illustration, combines the discussion of betrayal and redemption.

I. Initiation Novel
Initiation novel is an important part of American literature, also is a unique point to interpret the American literature. With the development of ethnic literature in 20th century, initiation novel not only concerns with the white adolescents, but also discusses troubles and hardships of minority colored race’s kids, its popularity for the development of the literature injects new vitality.
Academic circles think initiation novel comes from Germany at the end of the eighteenth century, the beginning of the 19th century. At that time, Germany was in transformation period. In order to move towards democratic society, it must “create” and “grow”, under that background, the initiation novel undertook the social function became a symbol of the era. In simple terms, the initiation novel is a novel whose theme is to narrate the growth process, by narrating the growth experience of a person or several people, reflects the process of change of characters’ the ideology and psychology from naive to mature, from weak to brave, from ignorance to intelligent. More precisely, initiation story should be limited in the narrative of the protagonist from the ignorance of state into knowing well about the adult world. Most novels contain autobiographical elements; the author reproduces his own life and experience consciously by a particular person.
With the development of the initiation novel, more and more people pay attention to it. The critic Abrams defined initiation novel “its theme is developing the protagonist’s thought and character, describes a variety of painful experience from an early age. The protagonist usually experiences a spiritual crisis, as the age grows, aware of their role and position in the human.” [2]
As a famous initiation novel The Kite Runner is welcomes by scholars. There are a lot of discussion of the betrayal and redemption of growth. For instance, Li Yu xia analyses the social ethic and character conflicts during the war time in Afghanistan, discussing the friendship and betrayal between two young boys. Besides, the symbolism of kite and the nature of human beings are investigated. [6] Guo Qiaoyi interprets The Kite Runner from the perspective of cognitive poetics and analyzes the hero’s mentality growth process and human betrayal and redemption from the point of metaphor. It points out the betrayal and redemption-mapping of real life and environment. The kite has a symbolic significance for understanding the human’s growth in this literary work. [4] Chen Hong-li mainly interprets the main character’s growth in mental from his three different age stages related to the kite. Childhood kite is metaphor of freedom, remorse, looking forward to the paternal love’s life style. Youth kite is metaphor of selfish, cowardly, betrayal of humanity. Grown up kite symbolizes spiritual salvation, perception of life. [3]
Based on these perspectives to study the betrayal and redemption of growth, this paper will expand the scope of knowledge and analysis, from the perspective of initiation novel to appreciate The Kite Runner. According to the characteristics of the growth novel, this paper uses the methods of metaphor and illustration, combines the discussion of betrayal and redemption, in order to expect more objective and comprehensive display of the nature of the novel.

II. The Synopsis of Story
“For you, a thousand times over.” [1] This sentence without any modification, plain and simple, but moving from Hassan— the hero of the novel, and has been running through the full text. The novel mainly tells a sorrowful story between a wealthy young master Amir and servant Hassan. The author meticulous narrates the story, outlines the deformity and essence of human nature，vividly interprets the war, race, religion and culture, a series of problems.
Child's childhood should be like a kite, free and easy. When he was a child, he lived a rich life, but the carefree childhood life was full of troubles. Due to his birth, bringing his mother disaster, so in Amir’s thought this is the reason why father did not like him, and his heart was always full of a sense of guilt. He unable to get rid of the obsession of remorse. Amir desired paternal love from childhood, but in order to make up for the guilt of Hassan, his father snubbed him to maintain an inner balance. In the minds of his father, two sons were born facing different lives, so he adopted different attitudes. Although Amir’s identity is humble, he owned the characters of honest, loyal and brave, treated people sincerely. One side is the pure friendship; the other side is deep envy. But they are still the best partner of childhood. When his father found doctors for Hassan to mend the cleft lip, the inner world of the Amir was touched deeply. He hoped that father could be kind to him, even fancied if only he had that kind of mouth.
In Afghanistan this ancient nation, chasing kite was a traditional custom. According to the usual practice, in this game the downed kite was best reward for the winner. Each brave Afghan child hoped won to it by himself, became the popular idol in the kite match. At the age of twelve, two teenagers joined the traditional kite contest. Servant Hassan was very smart, was a chasing kite expert. In order to win the appreciation and the trust of father, Amir wanted to be the winner of the champion. In order to catch up with the kite, kind and loyal Hassan suffered the greatest ravages and brutal shame, but he was still trying to protect the kite. This scene was just seen by Amir, at that time he felt the piercing pain and pleasure of the breaking tragedy. Out of selfishness and fear, he did not save Hassan, hurried to escape the scene in the hesitation. When he took the blue kite from the hands of Hassan, gained praise from father, a strong sense of guilt swept through the body. Story buried this foreshadowing from there, and opened the prelude to the self-salvation and struggle of human nature. In order to get rid of the condemnation of conscience and unstable of heart, coward Amir chose to escape. In order to expel Hassan, he told his father that Hassan was a thief. Unexpectedly, from then on, the pain, guilt and remorse wounded him all his life.
This story is told in the first person, through "I" to describe the loyalty of Hassan suffered all the hardship and torment for me. Tracing to its source, this suffering are a kind of trample from war to home, the destruction of human nature by racial discrimination, and Hassan’s kindness and loyalty. Under this deep-rooted racial culture’s influence, people have no pity, no struggle.
The story continues in misery. After Russian army occupied Afghanistan, in the time of guns and gunpowder, the beautiful home was devastated. Amir and his father began a hard trip. On the way to America, Amir's father faced with the despotic power of the Russian soldiers and showed the characters of strong and brave as an Afghan man, set a great father figure to Amir. In the conflict between nature and the environment, Amir has been deeply troubling. With the passage of time, the growth of the age, affected by a variety of things, subsequently, everyone began to have their own unique experience, the character would become diverse, or sincere, or good, or cunning, or evil. In the adult stage, like most young people he began to work and get married, living a happy and stable life, but the life cannot erase heart’s shadow. He often felt irresistible depression, unable to breathe freely, of course, he cannot change this situation. When his father died, so big blow also failed to become an opportunity for him to grow up. In the blink of an eye to the middle-aged people, suffering and pain of the past never left him, due to the letter from father’s friend, his heart spilled into the hope. Lasingham was his father's friend during his lifetime, had been keeping this secret, after friend’s death, he was critically ill soon, he was afraid of the secret to his grave, so decided to speak out. He told Amir that Hassan was his half-brother. When Amir heard the news as if falling the abyss, the image of the father collapsed undoubtedly. His father had cheated him and betrayed his mother. At the age of 12, his betray and rudeness with Hassan’s braveness and kindness. Care of consanguinity, the grim reality made Amir more uncomfortable. Just in the nick of time, Rahim Khan pointed out a self-rescue road for Amir. That is to help Hassan's son, Sohrab. Had experienced the bitterness and the misery, at that time, Hassan died, his young son repeated the tragedy. In order to save his soul, regardless of life safety, Amir again set foot on the land of the dire straits, in order to save Hassan's children, replaces Hassan to assume a responsibility as a father. Many years ago, Hassan had gone after the kite for him. Many years later, he chased the kite for Hassan’s son, completing the eternal promise,” For you, a thousand times over!” At that time, Amir bravely faced his inner ugly, and uses conscience to save himself, this is human nature, true and cruel growing pain.
Trust and betrayal, betrayal and introspection,