A Study On The Theme Of Growth In Burnett’s Novels From The Perspective Of Liminal Theory

The dilemma of children’s growth and guiding children out of the dilemma of growth is an ancient and enduring topic in the history of literature.Therefore,how the edification and resonance of literature means that children can better get rid of ignorance and dependence,face the hardships and troubles of life and overcome psychological anxiety and fear,and finally move towards maturity,independence,society and civilization,and realize the positioning and embodiment of personal value in the process of personalization and socialization,has become an eternal theme of human and literature.American writer Frances Hodgson Burnett’s representative works of children’s novels "The Secret Garden" "A Little Princess" and "Little Lord Fauntleroy" contain this immortal and meaningful theme deeply.The thesis takes Burnett’s three children’s novels,"The Secret Garden","A Little Princess" and "Little Lord Fauntleroy" as the research object.Firstly,it sorts out and defines the main concepts of growth,initiation stories,growth themes,and thresholds,clarifying the research perspective and scope,and expounds the possible connection between threshold theory and growth themes originating from different disciplines and their significance.In the light of the theoretical significance,the paper starts from the three concepts of "separation,threshold and blend",and takes the time axis and event axis of the character’s growth process as the order to interpret and explain the experience of the characters in each stage of hard exploration and growth in the marginalized life situation,and explore the specific presentation of the physical and mental life state of the characters in each stage of growth,This paper examines and analyzes the multiple factors that affect the staged development of the characters,summarizes the unique regeneration ceremony and the growing significance of the characters’ return to society and nature embodied in the text,and demonstrates from the perspective of threshold theory that the characters must experience symbolic death in order to gain new life in their growth.Studying initiation stories from the perspective of threshold theory,examining the characters and plots in the middle of the text and the transitional transformation of their growth environment have rich cultural significance and aesthetic value,and also supplement the existing research on the theme of growth from the perspective of interpretation methods.Compared with the research focusing solely on the importance of growth,this interdisciplinary perspective from human society to the field of literature can expand the content of initiation stories,trace the historical prototype of the growth theme in refining the commonness of the growth of the characters,and help more clearly understand the inevitable test,vitality and stage breakthrough performance of the characters in the process of growth,and also promote the development of multiple research on the growth theme.