| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立臺東大學 === 兒童文學研究所 === 100 === Trials and Growth – Keith Donohue’s The Stolen Child
Abstract
Keith Donohue’s debut novel The Stolen Child has proven to be a great success, winning the hearts of many readers. In this novel, the author mingles the worlds of fantasy and reality together to create a story of growth based on fairy tale structure and characters. The Stolen Child is a full-length novel narrating the growth from childhood to adulthood with its content covering various issues in the growth process of adolescents, which makes it a book to expand the readers’ diversified thinking ways and reading experience.
The story is mainly about the growth of a human boy captured by fairies and a fairy living in disguise of human identity. The story alternatively switches between the views of the boy and the fairy, presenting a journey of life struggling for love, affinity, friendship and identity recognition. Plain prose of the author has fully depicted the humanity trials, redemption and identity recognition that the leading characters underwent, revealing the philosophy that only through trials can life be rejuvenated to its original vitality.
The first chapter is general preface. The second chapter introduces the author and his works. The third chapter sets out from the author’s depiction of the fairies, and explores the literature expression and influence of fairies in the western culture and the symbolic and profound meaning of fairy literature in the ancient celtic culture in Ireland by analyzing the poem The Stolen Child by W.B.Yeats. The fourth chapter discusses the issue of growth, conveying the humanity trials within the novel in reference of passage rites and the celebration of adulthood. The fifth chapter puts forward the issue of self recognition through the angle of identity to find information of identity recognition with arguments such as the psychological mirror stage, self recognition of Ericson, place identity and other theories. The sixth chapter is conclusive about the literary value and life philosophy carried within the context.
Key words: fairy, growth, rite of passage, identity
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