The Brave Looking Back-a Study Of Trauma And Recovery In Slaughterhouse-five

Kurt Vonnegut is widely considered as one of the most influential Americanpostmodern novelists who emerged in the1960s. He is a prolific writer who had produceda large amount of works, among which Slaughterhouse-Five published in1969is the mostpopular and reputed among readers and critics.Slaughterhouse-Five, based on Vonnegut’s personal experiences during World War II,describes the teenage protagonist Billy Pilgrim’s war experiences and his life after the war,through which the author displays his opinions and attitudes to the war, human nature andthe society. So far, many critics have done comprehensive research and thorough analysisof the postmodern techniques and features of the novel. However, this thesis intends to gothrough a detailed reading of the novel from the perspective of Trauma Theory to analyzethe trauma and recovery in the novel. In the first chapter, the thesis discusses the causes oftrauma and represents the symptoms of trauma so as to reveal the cruelty of the war and itsfar-reaching influence and life-long shadow; in the second chapter, the thesis demonstrateshow hard two individuals Billy and the narrator “I” endeavor to recover from the trauma,which reflects Vonnegut’s condemnation of the war and reveals the indifferent post-warsociety; the third chapter explores how the author revises and reconstructs the collectivememory to help people as the collective to get rid of trauma.Compared with other trauma studies of Slaughterhouse-Five, this thesis not only givesan analysis of the causes, symptoms and recovery of trauma, but also discusses Vonnegut’schallenging the official discourse by recording the true history and demonstrates theinteraction between the novel and readers, which would help release the suppressedmemories and emotions of readers. Therefore, those traumatized people would be able torecover from trauma collectively.