The Trapped Soul

Toni Morrison is the first female African American writer who won the Nobel Prize in Literature. She has won a worldwide reputation for her profound literary theme and her vigorous literary creativity. In2008, Morrison published her ninth novel A Mercy. This novel was named as "10Best Books of2008" by the New York Times Book Review. It has aroused widespread attention and praise ever since.The present study, based on trauma theory, conducted traumatic research into Toni Morrison’s ninth novel A Mercy. It explored the deep-rooted reasons for the characters’ trauma. From the aspects of individual trauma and collective trauma, a detailed analysis of the characters in A Mercy unveiled that their sufferings are attributed to family and society. They were not only tormented by individual trauma, but also tortured by collective trauma. In A Mercy, all the characters regardless of race and color live a painful life under the system of slavery and they were all victims of that period. While the female characters in the novel were the victims of the patriarchal culture. Although they had to live with various sufferings, they still took respective approaches to tackle their trauma. They started a new life or got lost in life. By characterizing various characters, Morrison aroused public attention to slavery once again. Slavery not only left behind individual trauma, but also collective trauma, the trauma of American society and history. Morrison’s powerful disclosure of the fact and tireless exploration of the cure of trauma show her a specific human care and unique wisdom of thought as a black female writer.