A Study On Women’s Trauma In The Bonesetter’s Daughter

Universally regarded as the superb teller of Chinese tales, Amy Tan occupies adominant position in the realm of Chinese American literature. Her works have beengiven extensive and vehement attention by the critics and readers at home and abroad.Throughout The Bonesetter’s Daughter, the theme of trauma is soundly manifested inthat a great many traumatic memories and trauma depictions are interwoven in theplots so as to make the stories imbued with inexpressible astonishment and sadness.By means of trauma writing, Amy Tan bravely unfolds the dilemma faced by ChineseAmerican women in a depressive environment full of racial discrimination and sexualprejudices, and thus conveys the necessity of cultural inheritance and the importanceof self-reconstruction so as to recover from traumas.The research method employed in this thesis is a combination of theory withclose reading and textual analysis. Mainly under the guidance of Cathy Caruth’strauma theory, the thesis falls into six parts and explores the target novel from theviewpoint of women’s trauma. Chapter One briefly introduces the author Amy Tanand The Bonesetter’s Daughter, related literature reviews, and the significance of thethesis. Chapter Two is a comprehensive study on trauma theory including thedevelopment of trauma theory, trauma’s definition, symptoms, causes and treatment.Chapter Three focuses on the traumatized symptoms manifested by three womencharacters in the novel. LuLing, Ruth, and Precious Auntie have been exposed tomiscellaneous traumatic experiences so that they have severe traumatic symptomssuch as silence, depression, insanity, and suicide. Chapter Four analyzes in detail thecauses that lead to their traumas, pointing out that both the recurrent torment oftraumatic memory and the dual oppressions from racism and sexism are the majorcauses of trauma for the three main women characters. Chapter Five centers on thetreatment of trauma and expounds effective methods including writing remedy andlove remedy to help LuLing and Ruth recover from trauma. Chapter Six presents theconclusion to review my research and elucidate the theoretical and practical value in studying women’s trauma by employing trauma theory. At last, LuLing and Ruthboldly walk out of their traumas, which serve as the heart-stirring encouragement andenlightenment for the traumatized Chinese American women to face up to theirtraumas, pour out their unspeakable miseries, realize self-reconstruction and culturalinheritance through writing and love remedies so as to recover from the traumatizedsituation, and most importantly live in the moment with optimism and look hopefullyinto the brilliant future.