African Americans’ Healing From Traumas

Since the 1970 s,African-American literature has gained increasing attention,and becomes one of the most important branches of literature in America.As one of the representatives for African-American literature,Alice Walker is deeply concerned about the survival predicament and traumatic history of African-Americans.When she was a child,her right eye was deliberately shot by her elder brother with a cap pistol.Unfortunately,she suffered from temporary blindness,and there is a permanent scar on her right eye due to lack of timely treatment.What’s worse,she unexpectedly got pregnant,which even pushed her to commit suicide.Finally,she had an abortion with the help of a friend.Therefore,Walker was tortured by severe traumas.Besides,from her parents’ survival predicament,she realized economic exploitation and mental oppression from whites.Walker is acutely aware of blacks’ traumas from patriarchalism and racism.Hence,based on her personal and family experiences,she reveals traumas of blacks by writing them,and attempts to guide blacks to cure their traumas.The thesis does researches on Alice Walker’s two representative works,The Third Life of Grange Copeland and The Color Purple,analyzing Grange’s and Celie’s traumas,which are from the aspects of racism and sexism respectively.Grange,as “the Other” of racism,his trauma reveals black men’s plight under suppression of racism.Black men heal traumas by self-help,and achieve transformation from self-lost to rebirth.As “the Other” in patriarchalism,Celie’s trauma presents black women’s predicament in patriarchal society.Black women heal traumas with women’s coalition,and achieve transformation from numbness to awakening,from loss of identity to identity reconstruction.Traumas from racism and sexism prevent blacks from reconstructing identity,which results in loss of self.Blacks transform from loss of identity to identity reconstruction by self-help or women’s coalition.The thesis attempts to analyze the two novels by means of Cathy Caruth’s and Judith Herman’s trauma theories,and interprets Grange’s and Celie’s traumas,including their causes,symptoms,treatments,and results,with the purpose of revealing Alice Walker’s exploration of blacks’ traumas from racism and patriarchalism,and unveiling Walker’s guidance for treatments of blacks’ traumas.The thesis is divided into six chapters.The first chapter contains introduction to life experiences of Alice Walker and her two representative novels,The Third Life of Grange Copeland and The Color Purple.Besides,it introduces relevant literature review both at home and abroad,the development of trauma theory,Cathy Caruth’s and Judith Herman’s trauma theories,as well as significance and structure of the thesis.The second chapter points out causes of Grange’s and Celie’s traumas,which are rooted in racism and patriarchalism respectively.In detail,racist tenureship and white supremacy lead to Grange’s trauma.Celie’s trauma results from childhood and marriage.Both of their traumas are tragedies as “the Other”.The third chapter discusses Grange’s and Celie’s traumatic symptoms.Grange manifests impassiveness,atrocity and degeneration,as for Celie,she demonstrates numbness,isolation and subordination.Their traumatic syndromes are representatives of blacks’.The fourth chapter is based on three ways to cure traumas proposed by Judith Herman,that is,establishing safety,narrating traumas and reestablishing connections.It finds that Grange recovers from trauma by his own endeavor,more specifically,finding causes,seeking self-redemption and transmitting truth,while Celie cures trauma with women’s coalition,to be specific,building safety,narrating traumas as well as reconstructing relationships.They take initiative and different actions to cure their traumas.The fifth chapter focuses on results of healing traumas.Grange and Celie finally achieve successful transformation from loss of identity to identity reconstruction.The sixth chapter is a conclusion,which reiterates arguments,that is to say,Walker shows concern for blacks’ traumas by depicting Grange’s and Celie’s traumas,and guides black people to cure trauma.It is of research significance to interpret The Third Life of Grange Copeland and The Color Purple from the perspective of trauma theory.