Traumas In The Human Stain

The Human Stain, Philip Roth’s new-realistic work, is the last work of"American Trilogy". It is the return from his early realistic works which portrayedthe life of Jews and postmodern experimental works to the new-realistic works.However, there are seldom critics give a traumatic study on this novel. In this novel,Philip Roth describes different people’s trauma in different groups to make traumaappear at the historical moment. The author will give a close reading to the novel andtry to analyze the main characters’ traumas in this novel from traumatic perspectiveto reflect many issues in contemporary American society such as race, Vietnam Warand women which shows Philip Roth’s meditation on the human beings’ life andcrisis.This thesis is composed of three chapters apart from the introduction andconclusion. In chapter one, Coleman as the representative of African American, histrauma will be analyzed—its causes, syndromes, and the ways trying to workthrough the trauma to show the race issue in contemporary American society. Inchapter two, the Vietnam veterans’ trauma which is represented by Lester Farley willbe analyzed—its causes, syndromes, and the ways trying to work through the traumato draw public’s attention to the plight of the Vietnam veterans. In chapter three,Faunia, as a female, her trauma will be detected from her trauma causes, syndromesand the ways trying to work through the trauma to show the problem of female in theAmerican society.The thesis will analyze the representatives from different groups in traumaticperspective to reveal Philip Roth’s meditation on these social issues in contemporaryAmerican society and its meaning to literary work and hope these issues may callpublic’s attention. Analyzing this novel in traumatic perspective to detect the themeor the writing style is practicable. And the author hopes this thesis will be helpful forstudying this novel in traumatic perspective.