A Study Of The Initiation Theme Of The Good Lord Bird

James Mc Bride is one of the representatives of African American literature and enjoys great fame in the contemporary literary world.In 2013,Mc Bride published his most famous novel The Good Lord Bird,the winner of the 2013 National Book Award for Fiction.This novel centers on the abolitionist leader John Brown and his raid on Harpers Ferry,Virginia.The protagonist Henry Shackleford participates in the abolitionist movement under the leadership of John Brown.During this period,a series of experiences drives Henry to achieve transformation and growth: he changes from an innocent and ignorant black boy to a mature man.Therefore,this paper studies the initiation theme of The Good Lord Bird from the perspective of the initiation story,aiming to deepen the readers’ understanding of the theme of this work and explore the realistic significance of the initiation theme shown in the work.This paper is divided into three major parts,including introduction,main body and conclusion.The introduction part focuses on the life experience of Mc Bride and his major literary achievements.At the same time,this part also makes a brief introduction of the main storyline of The Good Lord Bird,and combs the research status of this novel at home and abroad.Finally,it briefly introduces the initiation story theory and points out the aim and innovation of this paper.The main body of the paper consists of three chapters.These chapters elaborate on the initiation theme highlighted in The Good Lord Bird from three aspects of plot patterns,characters and writing techniques.The first chapter analyzes the protagonist’s initiation in terms of the plot patterns.This chapter takes the protagonist’s growth experience as the main storyline to show the growth and transformation of his cognition of emotion,race and gender identity.Moreover,this part centers on Henry’s days in the Dutch’s tavern and the tavern in the town of Pikesville,as well as his years of following Old Brown’s army in fighting against the abolitionist movement.Through these journeys,the basic plot patterns experienced by the protagonist Henry in the process of growing up are clearly explained:innocence and ignorance,confusion and struggle,and maturity.As he grows up,Henry constantly examines and reflects on himself,and finally reshapes his views of emotion,race and gender identity.The second chapter expounds the protagonist’s initiation from the aspect of characters.This chapter dissects how some positive and negative initiation guides in this novel drive Henry to realize the awakening of self-consciousness,and make him grow from a cowardly black boy to a brave man.These guides play different roles in the changes of Henry’s cognition of emotion,race and gender identity,and promote Henry’s growth from both positive and negative sides.The third chapter places emphasis on how Mc Bride uses his writing skills to further demonstrate the growth and transformation of the protagonist,which presents the initiation theme of the novel.The first-person narrative fully reveals the change of the protagonist’s personality and psychological state during the growth process.In addition,two symbols,the Good Lord Bird and the skirt,also play a very important part in emphasizing the initiation theme of the work.The boy’s growth is embodied in his changing cognition of the Good Lord Bird and his changing attitude towards wearing the skirt.The third part is the conclusion of the paper.By summarizing the discussion in the previous chapters,the conclusion implies that exploring the initiation theme of The Good Lord Bird from the perspective of the initiation story theory broadens the research perspective of this work,which enables readers to interpret this novel from different angles and deepen their understanding of the novel.Furthermore,it indicates that analyzing the initiation theme of this novel is of practical significance to the growth and education of contemporary young people.Finally,it also points out the limitations and deficiencies of this paper and the bright prospect of the initiation story.