Who Am I?: Kim's Initiation In The Postcolonial Context

Kim,published in 1901,is one of the full-length representative novels of the English writer Rudyard Kipling.With initiation as its theme,Kim tells a story of a hero in his teenager against the background of India in the postcolonial context.Mainly because of its publication,Kipling was awarded the Noble Prize in Literature in 1907.The reasons why he got the prize go as follows: This famous writer is expert at careful observation,unique imagination,tremendous momentum and brilliant narration.In Kim,Kipling vividly and expressively describes Indian culture,environments and each image.In addition,it also reflects the cultural collision between the Orient and the Occident.Therefore,to study and analyze this classic work is of great significance.Most of the critics have analyzed Kim from multiple perspectives,including postcolonial studies,narrative strategies,comparative studies and so on.But they didn't combine initiation and postcolonial studies together.Therefore,in order to enrich the ways of studying and comprehending this classic and provide a new perspective,this thesis will study Kim's initiation and focus on Kim to analyze his initiation predicament about his identity problem in the postcolonial context.From an innocent boy to a teenager,Kim continuously finds his differences and becomes not that happy as before.In the postcolonial context,former colonies still have the influence of the previous empire.Conflicts between the West and the East can be seen almost everywhere in India.As a white man growing up in India,what Kim firstly touches is Eastern culture in his early initiation.However,in his questing journey,he encounters people who serve for England and he also offers services for the government.Moreover,he still has a deep relation with some Orientals.Therefore,his primary cultural consciousness including behavior and language is not that clear.Under the guidance of some mentors from two different cultures,his identity becomes ambiguous in his later initiation,which makes him worried.He keeps asking “who am I”.Finally,the identity problem leads to his initiation crisis.Having experienced the miserable period and through finding solutions,Kim accepts his hybrid identity,andachieves initiation enlightenment.The thesis consists of seven parts.Chapter one briefly introduces Rudyard Kipling's life and works,and illustrates the main contents of Kim.Chapter two summarizes international and domestic literature review about Kim.Chapter three expounds the main concept of the thesis—initiation,and the postcolonial context.Chapter four describes the purity and innocence of Kim's early initiation in the postcolonial context.In this period,he doesn't recognize his complex identity,only having a primordial identity.At first,Kim appears as a friend of all the world,and begins his search journey after he meets the lama.Chapter five analyzes difficulties and uncertainty of Kim's later initiation in the postcolonial context.Because of his British blood and Indian behavior due to his living in India,a contradiction occurs between the two cultures in him.Moreover,mentors who guide him in the journey come from two cultures,which strengthens his identity ambivalence and makes his initiation more difficult.Chapter six explores how Kim tries to find solutions to deal with his initiation crisis,and how he finally recovers from the predicament and accepts his hybrid identity in the postcolonial context.Kim lives in-between,and gains his initiation epiphany.And the chapter also predicts Kim's future.Chapter seven is the conclusion part.It points out that everyone will face troubles and difficulties in the initiation process.And for those who live in the cultural conflicts,initiation is more difficult and complex.Therefore,the exploration of the initiation of a hero is of great significance.Besides,this chapter also provides a new perspective for further studies of this novel.Kim has great significance,because it creates an environment of cultural collisions and describes a boy from the naive to the mature.It helps readers to understand the difficulty of a man's initiation in the postcolonial context.What's more,though initiation may pose some problems or challenges to people,it will lead people to maturity.