摘 要

当今世界，人口老龄化已逐渐成为一种普遍现象，老年人的精神世界和心理健康已引起越来越多的关注。蕾秋·乔伊斯的《一个人的朝圣》讲述了老人哈罗德收到老友的来信后开始了自我救赎与成长的朝圣之旅的故事。论文的创新之处在于从老年人的角度来诠释成长小说。本文研究了哈罗德的自我救赎与成长的过程，同时也关注哈罗德的精神世界与心理的变化，最终发现让老年人重新融入社会，走出舒适圈是缓解他们精神生活空洞的方法之一。本文基于成长小说理论，了解老年人的心理成长过程，能帮助老年人丰富他们的精神生活，并促进他们心理的成长。

关键词: 成长，自我救赎，成长小说，一个人的朝圣

Abstract

In today's world, population aging has gradually become a common phenomenon, and issue of the spiritual world and psychological health of the elderly has drawn more and more attention. Rachel Joyce’s The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry tells the story of the old man Harold who began his journey of self-redemption and growth after receiving a letter from an old friend.The innovation of the thesis lies in demonstrating the initiation story from the perspective of the elderly.This article studies the process of Harold's self-redemption and growth, and also pays attention to the changes in Harold's spiritual world and psychology. Finally, reintegrating into the society and stepping out of the comfort zone is one of the ways to ease the emptiness of their spiritual life. Based on the theory of initiation, this article reveals the process of psychological growth of the elderly, which can help the elderly to enrich their spiritual life and promote their psychological growth.

Key words: growth; self-redemption; initiation story; The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

Contents

1 Introduction 4

2 Theoretical Foundation 6

2.1 Definition of Initiation Story 6

2.2 Development of Initiation Story 6

2.3 Features of Initiation Story 6

3 Harold’s Confusion 8

3.1 Harold Fry and His Personality 8

3.2 Loss of Self-Identity 9

3.3 Causal Analysis 9

4 process of Initiation 11

4.1 Growth 11

4.2 Self-Redemption 11

5 Significance of Initiation 13

6 Conclusion 14

References 15

Acknowledgements 16

Growth in Self-Redemption

-An Analysis of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry from the Perspective of Initiation Story

1 Introduction

Rachel Joyce, born in London in 1962. As a playwright, she won the 2007Tinniswood for her radio play To Be A Pilgrim. After 20 years of her stage play and television career, she published The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry in 2012, which was her debut novel. It was a long-list finalist for the 2012 Men Booker Prize, and in December 2012 Joyce won the UK National Book for New Writer of the Year for the book. It has been sold nearly 40 countries and nearly 5 million copies worldwide. It was also the best-selling hardback book in the UK from a new novelist in 2012.

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry tells a story of a growth in redemption of an old people. Harold Fry is a retired old man with a sad childhood, cold marriage and none close friend, whose life is going to rewrite after receiving a letter of his nearly dying friend Queenie. So he starts his journey. Encouraged by the girl in the gas station, Harold Fry decides to walk 627miles to meet Queenie. In 87 days, he experiences self-doubt and self-denial, finally achieving his inner world growth and self-redemption.

In China, studies on The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry began to appear only in recent years. Many Chinese scholars show great interest in this book. There are 32 related studies of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry on CNKI, and 27 of them belong to literature. Nowadays, the research on initiation story is an emerging area in China. However, the analysis from the perspective of initiation story is rarely mentioned at home referring to the book of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, which still has many values. There is plenty of advance praise for The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry abroad. Nancy Horan, the author of Loving Frank, spoke highly of the novel, “When it seems almost too late, Harold Fry opens his battered heart and lets the world rush in. I was moved and inspired by this funny, poignant story about an ordinary man on an extraordinary journey.”（孙峰 2012）

To sum up, since Rachel Joyce is still a new novel writer, the study of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry can be said to be valuable. Additionally, the analysis of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry from the perspective of initiation story is relatively less after searched domestic and foreign academic databases available, as a consequence of which, this paper will enter on the perspective of initiation story to reveal the growth of inner world of Harold Fry.

This paper consists of six chapters, including an introduction, a theory explanation, three main chapters and a conclusion. The introduction part includes some relevant background information concerning the novel The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and its author, concerning the basic story of the novel and the writing career and achievements of Rachel Joyce, a review of existing studies on the work both at home and abroad, and discusses the research value of the novel. Chapter two mainly centers on the theory of initiation story, including its definition and features. Chapter three centers on Harold’s confusion and his personality. This is the inner reason why Harold’s chooses to start this journey. The forth part focuses on the process of the protagonist’s psychological growth and self-redemption as an old man. Chapter five demonstrates the significance of Harold’s growth and self-redemption. The last chapter is about the conclusion of the thesis. It summarizes why the protagonist Harold Fry starts his journey and how he achieves his spiritual growth and self-redemption during the journey, which show that the psychological growth really matters regardless of young or old. So the issue that people in modern society have some spiritual cavity or problem will be come up with, and the suggestion about how to avoid spiritual cavity and achieve spiritual growth will be given.

2 Theoretical Foundation

2.1 Definition of Initiation Story

The term “initiation story” comes from a German term “Bildungsroman” at the end of the 18^th century. Bildungsroman, it refers to a genre of the novel which focuses on the psychological and spiritual growth of the protagonist from innocence to maturity and in which the protagonist’s change is thus extremely important. In a Bildungsroman, the goal is to achieve psychological maturity(秦艺航 218-222).