The Study On George In Tinkers Under The Theory Of Trauma

Paul Harding is a new American writer, best known for his first novel Tinkers whichwon the2010Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Tinkers is a novel about the memory of Georgebefore his death and story of his father and his grandfather. Through the depicting of threegeneration of Crosby family, Harding reveals his unique understanding of death and time.Trauma theory is a famous theory focusing on analysis of traumatic event, the symptomsof trauma, and the recovery of trauma. And it is also a theory which directly associates withliterature. This theory provides a new perspective of literature and also makes a significantcontribution to the literary review.This thesis includes introduction, the main body and conclusion as a whole. Theintroduction draws a sketch of Paul Harding and his work Tinkers, giving a generalintroduction of trauma theory, and makes a review of studies carried on this novel.The main body includes three chapters. The first chapter is an analysis on George’straumatic experiences and traumatic symptoms. The traumatic experience unfolds fromGeorge’s childhood memory and the symptoms include two parts: the analysis onre-experience and avoidance. The second chapter focuses on the reasons for George’s trauma.Through analyzing, this thesis indicates that the domestic reason and social reason are theroots of George’s trauma. The third chapter introduces the progress of recovery fromGeorge’s trauma. There are three stages in this progress: establishment of different life,remembrance of traumatic experience, and connection with others. All of three stages arenecessary for George’s recovery.After the analysis of George based on the trauma theory, this thesis draws the conclusion.The conclusion part makes a summary of this thesis. Using trauma theory to analyze the maincharacter George reveals a new understanding of this novel.