This study set out to investigate Kim Won-il`s growth novels that clearly demonstrated the changing patterns of growth among the subjects. There were changes between his growth novels in the 1970s and those in the 1980s. While the former concerned his missing his father and understanding him, the latter depicted his attempt to "understand his mother." Those changes display a process in which "the mother of love and hatred" that dominated the author evolved into the object of his pity, understanding and love. In the former category of his growth novels, the more he missed his father, the more he described his mother as someone who was suppressive and to be resented. His unfavorable attitude towards the mother gradually disappeared in his novels written in the 1980s. Examined in the study were The Spirit of Darkness(1973), Thirst(1973), Illusion (1982), and The Clean Body(1987) that were short stories and The Sunset(1978), The Wind and The River(1985), and A House with a Deep Yard(1988) that were full-length novels. Those texts contributed to the growth discourse, which revealed the meanings of growth that were analyzed by solving the "mystery of life." His early short stories and The Spirit of Darkness, which was a turning point for his works, raised questions about the mystery of life. The work particularly depicts the protagonist`s attitude towards ideology and starving. Having a distance from ideology and overcoming starvation were formed by the influences of his father and mother. What has been ignored in the examination of the writer`s growth novels is his awareness of "sex." Thirst and The Wind and The River well exhibit his desire for love. Telling their narratives in the two works, the sons and protagonists succeed in keeping their pure love eagerly pursued by them free from the reality principles of their parents.