“死亡”是每个人的必然归宿，死亡问题是人们在生命历程中不可回避的终极性问题，因此，死亡主题是中外文学作品中最为重要的主题之一。而以表现人物成长为主线、充满青春气息的成长小说，也将死亡主题贯穿其中，对小说中人物成长的完成和主旨的表达起到特殊的作用。虽然受各自文化背景的影响，中外成长小说在死亡主题的表达方式上存在一定的差异，但基于人性的相同点，更多地存在相似相通之处，本文着力通过对《芒果街上的小屋》与《樱桃之远》两部作品的对比分析，探讨成长小说中死亡主题的表达方式及其特殊作用，以及“死亡”对于个体成长乃至整个人生的意义。 本文以美国作家希斯内罗丝的《芒果街上的小屋》与中国作家张悦然的《樱桃之远》为分析文本，分别从“‘死亡’在‘成长’中的表现”、“‘死亡’在‘成长’中的作用”两个方面分析死亡主题在成长小说中的表现方式及其对小说的作用。从表现方式上看，成长小说一般通过“自杀的方式”、“遭遇意外的方式”、“自然的方式”来表现人物的死亡；从死亡的主体看，会通过“我的死亡”和“他者的死亡”的共同表现，来反映成长主人公生命意识的获得和精神成长的完成。而死亡主题在成长小说中的作用则主要体现在“对情节发展的作用”、“对小说主旨表现的作用”和“对人物成长的作用”三大方面。最后，本文在此分析的基础上概括出两部成长小说的文化背景之差及其反映的人性之同。

"Death" is the inevitable result for each person, and the problem of death is ultimate and inevitable in people’s life, so the theme of death is one of the most important subject in literary works. The bildungsroman also run through the theme of death, which is youthful and puts the growth of people as the main line. The theme of death plays a special role on the finish of growth and the expression of purpose. Influenced by their different cultural background, there are some differences between Chinese and foreign bildungsroman in the expression of the theme of death. On the other hand, based on the same of human nature, there’re more similarities between them. This article attempt to investigate the expression、 the special function of the theme of death and the meaning for individual growth even the whole life through the analysis of the comparison between "The house on Mango Street" and "Khmer Smile". This article puts "The house on Mango Street", created by an American writer, Cisneros and "Khmer Smile", created by an Chinese writer Zhang Yueran as the analysis text. It analyses the expression and the functions of bildungsroman through the two aspects of “the expression of death in ‘growth’”and “the functions of death in ‘growth’”. Bildungsroman usually express the character of the death by "Dutch ", "unexpected" and "natural"; as for the death of the body, they usually use a common expression through "my death" and "others’ death" to reflect the acquirement of life ’consciousness and the complete of spiritual growth. The theme of death in bildungsroman is mainly embodied in the " the effect for the development of the plot", "the effect for the expression of the gist" and "the effect for the growth of the hero" .Finally, the article summarizes the differences of the culture and the similarities of human nature based on the analysis.