A Study Of Black People’s Trauma In Home

In 2012, African American woman writer Toni Morrison published the tenth novel Home. The novel describes Frank’s and Cee’s traumatic experiences and how they get recovery from the trauma. Just like Morrison’s any other works, Home focuses on revealing the black people’s living conditions and their inner struggles and external difficulties in searching for their own identities. This thesis resorts to trauma theory to study the root causes and symptoms of two protagonists’ trauma and to explore their recovery stages and methods.Some concepts related to trauma theory are briefly introduced. And the thesis analyzes the root causes and effects of two characters’ traumatic experiences from the perspective of individual traumas and collective traumas. Based on the analysis of the root causes and symptoms of the characters’ trauma, the thesis explores the efforts made by Frank and Cee to get recovery from the trauma and points out how they establish safety, reconstruct their memories and reconnect to the black community. In order to get recovery from trauma and start new life, Frank and Cee not only need to admit the facts of trauma, reconstruct the traumatic memory, and face the trauma with courage, they also need to accept and return to the black traditional culture. The innovation of the thesis is to explore the double meaning of the protagonists’ trauma and their paths to recovery. African American people should be aware that only the tolerance and warmth given by the black community can ultimately heal the trauma experienced by the black people.