| The Pulitzer Prize winner Alice Walker(1944-) is one of the most famous African American women writers, whose newest novel Now Is the Time to Open Your Heart(2004) depicts a 57- year- old woman writer Kate Nelson in search of peace in mind. This novel is structured according to the three trauma healing journeys: the Colorado River journey, the Amazon rain forest journey and the Hawaii journey,during which Kate, Yolo and other characters commune with Grandmother, narrate their different traumatic experiences, and finally get healed. The term “trauma”derives from Greek with its original meaning as “a physical wound”. Nowadays,“trauma” refers to psychological trauma, which is a kind of damage to the psyche of the traumatized person because of a certain severely distressing event. In the 1990 s,trauma theory has been applied as an approach to literary reading. Based on Cathy Caruth’s and Judith Herman’s viewpoints on trauma theory, this thesis aims to analyze the trauma theme of Now Is the Time to Open Your Heart.Now Is the Time to Open Your Heart implies Walker’s thoughts of problems in the modern world and her reflection on the psychological traumas of modern people.Firstly, Walker shows her humanistic concern about the plight of traumatized people including the blacks, whites, Indians and Hawaiians. Secondly, in this novel, Walker not only shows her concern about the physical and psychological sufferings of the traumatized, but she also expresses her sharp criticism of such problems as wars,hegemonism, genocide, racial oppression, sexual abuse, child abuse and the destruction of nature, which have caused huge physical and psychological traumas to people. Thirdly, Walker points out that traumatized people can get healed by going back to nature, in which they can open their hearts and free themselves spiritually from the confinement of trauma by communion with nature and other traumatized people. |
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