1.Research background 1.1Khaled Hosseini and The Kite Runner The Kite Runner is written by Khaled Hosseini, who is the contemporary famous American writer. The Kite Runner is his first novel,which makes him well-known. It also adopted into a movie. Fortunately it was nominated for the best Oscar adopted movie. It is the very first novel in English by an Afghan, in which a thirty-eight-year-old writer named Amir tells his difficult life from Kabul to San Francisco from the perspective of a Pakistan. Khaled Hosseini is born in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 1965 and moved to San Jose, California for secondary education in 1984 and then enrolled at Santa Clara University. There he earned a Bachelor#8217;s degree in Biology in 1988. The following years, he entered the University of California-San Diego#8217;s school for medicine. Khaled Hosseini showed special preference to literature since childhood, especially to the Persian poetry. While in medical practice, Hosseini began to write his first novel ”The Kite Runner”. Since its publication, reviewers have shown admiration for the novel for its straightforward storytelling, its convincing character studies, and for its startling account of human toll of the violence that has accompanied Afghanistan#8217;s turbulent political scene ( Al#8212;Sudeary, 2009: 107). Maria Elena Caballero-Robb interprets Hosseini#8217;s novel The Kite Runner as a work that intertwines the private and public realms of experience (Maria, 2003:10), James O#8217; Brien discusses the author#8217;s use of voice, and how the two main characters reflect the character of Afghanistan itself (James, 2003: 11). Richard, P writes that this is a historical novel about the pre-Russian invasion and pre-Taliban rule of Afghanistan, as well as life in Afghanistan under Taliban rule and life in post-Taliban Afghanistan (Richard, 2008: 84). The novel tells a story about strained family relationships between a father and a son and between two brothers--how they deal with guilt and forgiveness and how they endure the political and social transformation of Afghanistan from 1970 to 2001. The protagonist, Amir, was born into a wealthy family in Kabul, raised by his father,his mother having passed away in his birth. He has a friend called Hassan of his same age. As Amir mentions, they have some kind of bond because they are fed from the same breasts. There is another important character named Assef, who is Amir#8217;s arch adversary, living just several blocks away. A tragedy takes place on a snowy day that Hassan got raped by Assef due to his refusal of handing out the kite which means everything to a kite runner. Amir saw through the whole scene but only to turn his back on his real friend Hassan. This betrayal renders Amir constrained and uneasy to such an extent that he finally kicked Hassan out. Then the war comes, he and his father escape to Pakistan and end up in the United States, with his father becoming a gas-station manager, selling junks on weekend. 2.Research objective and research content The paper mainly emphasizes the kite as the key image carrying a vast sea of messages throughout the whole text of The Kite Runner. The analysis mainly focuses on the narrating and expressive functions of the kite image to reveal a brand-new spirit and culture, the eternal relationship of betrayal and redemption, and the everlasting fight between human virtues and cruel reality. Through the analysis of the kite image to expose the beauty and ugliness of humanity, class prejudice and racial discrimination, then tell us be a loyal person who is loyal to friends, family and country, and also tell us face the fault honestly and fearlessly. 3.Significance of the Study Putting the theory of initiation story as the basis, this thesis starts from the characteristics of the initiation story, studies how The Kite Runner embodies the characteristics of the initiation story from the aspects of content , some special images, characters and writing technique. This thesis defines The Kite Runner as a typical initiation story. Through the analysis of the characteristics of initiation story, this study enriches its story. There are few studies on this field. I t has theoretical significance. This study also has realistic significance. We will make mistakes inevitably, but if we want to get a real growth, we should face the fault honestly and fearlessly, which will also benefit the growth of youth. 4.Literature reviews Although Khaled Hosseini and his works have won full recognition of the literary critics and the readers of the world, maybe because he is a new-born writer, and his works have been introduced into China just a few years ago, the studies on Khaled Hosseini and his works are few. So far, Dr. David Jefferess#8217;s To be good (again): The Kite Runner as allegory of global ethics (2009) is the only research article about this novel in Journal of Postcolonial Writing. David Jefferess is the assistant professor of English Faculty in University of British Columbia, Okanagan. He argues that The Kite Runner reflects a shift from the supremacy of race and nation as primary makers of political community and identity to the idea of the ”mdern” as the framework for determining the ”human”. Therefore, he views the novel as an allegory of global ethics. The previous studies on The Kite Runner mainly focus on the symbolic means used in the novel, the study of the themes and the analysis of the characters. First of all. Form the aspect of symbolism. Wang Jianrong in his An analysis of the kite image in The Kite Runner (2009) mainly analyzes the symbolic meaning of the kite.He puts the image into different background: to a nation, kite symbolizes courage; to the hero, kite symbolizes the means to receive father#8217;s love and betrayal and redemption of the future; to Hassan, the hero#8217;s servant, kite symbolizes loyalty and good quality. Jiang Xiaoqing in his Symbolism in The Kite Runner (2010) attempts to make a detailed analysis of the symbolic meaning of Afghanistan, Hassan and the kite. Secondly, from the aspect of the theme, most of the articles analyze from the perspective of betrayal and redemption. Li Yuxia in her Betrayal and Redemption in The Kite Runner (2008) interpreters the novel from the perspectives of betrayal and redemption, and discuss the contradiction between friendship and betrayal under the background of Afghanistan society, then explores the nature of human being and redemption. Zhang Guolong (20007) indicates that The Kite Runner is the profound writing about ”growth”, betrayal and redemption relates with the protagonist#8217;s initiation. Thirdly, from the aspect of character, Li Jing in her article The Reading of Hassan Image in The Kite Runner (2009) analyzes the character of Hassan from the perspective of prototype of scapegoat. In Li#8217;s opinion, Hassan is a scapegoat of his parents and the racial discrimination of the society. There are also papers which analyze this novel from the perspective of initiation story. Jiang Xiaoqing A Spiritual Journey to Redemption#8212;A Bildungsroman perspective to The Kite Runner (2010), the writer studies from the hero#8217;s experience of personal salvation and growth, discusses that Amir abandons selfish by driving force to kindness and then grows. Lei Ji (2009) makes an overall study of the novel from the perspective of character, theme and stylistic. All the previous studies inspire my paper writing. As the lack of the study of Khaled Hosseini and The Kite Runner, it still remains much space for the further study. 5.The Kite Image 5.1The Custom of Kite Flying in Afghan Afghanistan has a long history of kite running. Because of its squeezing land, people have very limited ways to have fun. As a result, each Friday they go out onto the street to fly kite and catch the falling-downs. Flying kites in winter in Afghan is a game of fame. In winter the weather in Afghan is severe cold. With strong wind, the fighting of kite running is seen as a audacious game makes sense. Actually, in Afghans#8217; eyes, fighting kites is a severe battle. Kite in their weapon. The aim of the kite fighting contest is to cut down your opponent#8217;s kite with your kite#8217;s string. In order to do this, the kite strings are coated with glue and powdered glass so that the opponent#8217;s kite string can be cut down easily during the kite fight. Once a kite is cut the kite runners chase them until land. The runner who grabs the fallen kite gets to keep it. However the grand prize is the last cut kite. The spectators would get really enthusiastic about the game. They would shout and scream” kill it” ” kill it”, like the Romans watching the gladiators fighting. The kite runners are running amid the streets. It is nothing out of the ordinary to see them fight and shout at each other. What#8217;s more, the most interesting part takes place when a bunch of kids are running after the cut kite. If the kite runner gets the kite, then no one can take it away. It#8217;s a custom not a rule. For a kite runner, managing to get the cut kite in this winter tournament is a distinguished honor. People will place it on the mantelpiece for exhibition. In some sense, kite symbolizes freedom-pursuit, fair competition and coorperation. Kites flying high in the sky reflect the Afghan nation#8217;s desire for freedom. Although they live on a narrow land, they manage to demonstrate that their free spirit is not limited to the space. The custom#8217;s close association with the nation#8217;s freedom is underlined in the novel when it was invaded by Taliban, flying kite is banned. Flying kites connote a spirit of cooperation, because usually two children cooperate with each other to control the kite. Underlying this cooperation is a bondage of deep friendship, without which cooperation is impossible. Certainly, this convention is also empowered by a spirit of fair competition-- it is a contest and the winner will be rewarded. These three connotations of kite flying custom are all transferred to the text and embodied in Hosseini#8217;s delineation of the family saga. 5.2The Kite Image Image is the manifestation of senses, emotions and ideas. In a literature work, an image can serve for the building of a character and conveying of the ideas. Image belong to the category of aesthetics. It is the production of the author#8217;s subjective emotions. As Wang Jianrong points out kites in literature often employed as a important image which carries various metaphor meaning. In Dickens#8217;s work David Copperfield, flying the kite means he wants to escape the mundane life and indicates his nature of virtue like an angle with wings to fly. While in A Dream of the Red Mansions, the kites serves as an indication of the destiny of each character. In Lu Xun#8217;s work, kite symbolizes youth, embodying a nostalgia feeling of spring and bewilderingly pursuit of wonderful things( Wang Jianrong, 2009: 91). When the kite image has frequent appearances in the novel, then it becomes a symbol. Because the symbolization of an image relies on repetition and a sustainable connotation. In this case, an image is transformed into a metaphor, a projection of an idea into an object. In The Kite Runner, kite is not merely an image but also a symbol. It does not only appear in the text frequently but also serves as a main clue of the story. In the novel, the kite as a symbol obtains its symbolic meanings from the flying-kite customs mentioned above. It mainly symbolizes three key concepts: freedom, competition and cooperation( Wang Jianrong, 2009: 92). Reference [1] Al-Sudeary, Mashael. ”Power Relations in The Kite Runner. 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