A Study On Trauma And Recovery In Kingston’s The Woman Warrior From The Perspective Of Trauma Theory

In the long history of Chinese American literature, there have been manyAmerican Chinese writers who have made remarkable achievements. One of the mostinfluential writers is Maxine Hong Kingston. The Woman Warrior causes a lot ofcritical responds among readers and scholars since it was published in1976.Kingston’s success shows that Chinese literature has been gradually accepted bymainstream American literature. Therefore, we can say that The Woman Warriorexemplifies the prosperity of Chinese American literature. This novel successfullydepicts the Chinese females’ frustration and struggles in America and the differentattitude they take towards trauma which result in their different fates. This thesisapplies trauma theory to analyze the causes of the Chinese females’ miserable life andhow they overcome trauma. This thesis not only depicts the females’ tragic fate, butalso focuses on the causes of their miserable life and the efforts they make to strivefor a better future. By applying trauma theory to analyze females’ different destiny,this thesis tries to provide a new perspective with which to analyze The WomanWarrior.This thesis is divided into five parts in total. The first chapter mainly introducesMaxine’s life and her works, the development of trauma theory. The second chaptermainly analyzes the Chinese females’ frustration and sadness from the perspective ofgender, culture and race while integrating trauma theory. The third chapter focuses onvarying degrees of negative influence on females caused by long-term trauma. Gender differences, culture conflicts, and racial discrimination are all the essential factorswhich cause the females’ trauma. The fourth chapter describes how Maxine finallyovercomes perplexity and becomes the victor of her life through her constant efforts.The last chapter is the conclusion. The different destinies of the female characters inthis novel let us know that only those who dare face trauma and make efforts tochange themselves can find their hope in life.