Trauma And Recovery In Meridian

Alice Walker is one of the most influential writers in contemporaryAmerican literature. Her writing is diverse in genre and also fruitful in achievements.The term “womanism” was first coined by Alice Walker. It not just reveals the unfairsufferings of black people, especially the black women. More importantly, theirstruggle and growth in the face of adversity, and finally live equally and harmoniouslywith men and the white. Meridian is Walker’s second novel, which is honored as oneof the best novels about Civil Rights Movement. However, there are only a fewresearches about this novel, and mainly from the perspective of black feminism,Eco-feminism and womanism.This thesis tries to apply the trauma theory to analyze the novel, and withthe help of Cathy Caruth’s trauma memory and Judith Herman’s trauma recovery. Itwill focus on the three main characters: Meridian, Lynne and Truman, about theirtrauma, recovery and the significance from trauma to recovery. Thus, to express AliceWalker’s humanism cares for the blacks, her praises for the black women, highlightsthe value of black culture and her pursuits that people of different race and differentgender can harmoniously live together.The paper is composed by five parts, the introduction briefly talks aboutthe life of Alice Walker and her works, also the literature review and theoreticframework of the novel. Chapter one analyzes the trauma symptom and it’s causesfrom the individual and collective level. Chapter two is about different ways ofrecovery, Meridian’s recover through reconstructing herself; Lynne by talking withMeridian; and Truman through pursuing Meridian. Chapter three is the significancefrom trauma to recovery, analyzes the post-traumatic growth of the characters. Theconclusion part summarizes the main points and restates the theme of the thesis.