A Study On The Theme Of Trauma In And The Mountains Echoed

Since 2003,Khaled Hosseini,an Afghan American writer,has published three novels.Among the general readers,as well as in literary critics,Hosseini receives extraordinary attention and gets high appraisal for writing the little-known Afghanistan.Taking Afghanistan as the main background,his latest work,And the Mountains Echoed,describes the traumatic experiences of characters,and how their destinies are shaped by their different attitudes to their traumas.Since And the Mountains Echoed is published,most critics analyze the novel from the perspective of feminism,family ethics,and narratology,but few critics mention what influences Hosseini's ethnic identity exerts on his creation.Caruth agrees that when the psychological defense mechanisms of victims are destroyed in the face of sudden or catastrophic events,trauma will become traumatic memory and influence the life of victims.Therefore,getting out of traumatic memories and recovering from trauma,become an inevitable choice of victims.Based on Hosseini's ethnic identity,this thesis intends to analyze the causes and influences that various traumas exert upon different characters and explore ways which help recover from trauma through trauma theory of Caruth.First,the thesis discusses the causes of the characters' traumas,including characters' traumatic memories of early experiences as well as traumatic memories of nation and culture.Second,it expounds the performance and influence of traumas in victims' life.Third,it analyzes the ways to recover from trauma,in which three main ways are mentioned:trauma narrative,identity reconstruction and love cure.The following findings can be obtained through analysis.First,as an Afghan American writer,Hosseini's individual life experiences and memories,together with a sense of ethnic mission,form a deep"national complex".The unique growth experience constructs Hosseini's memories of past traumas.To a large extent,artistic works can be regarded as possible solutions to his trauma.Second,individual and collective memories are the major causes of characters' trauma in And the Mountains Echoed.The Afghans who suffer traumas can get rid of the influence of traumas and recover from traumas through efforts.This thesis has interpreted the traumas of characters that have different identities,in which it showed the universality of trauma and necessity of recovering from trauma.Meanwhile,the thesis breaks the limit of previous study which only interprets trauma in Hosseini's works from racial perspective and also expands the study of Hosseini's works.Trauma theory offers the thesis a new perspective to give fresh interpretation,while providing realistic inspiration and insights that stimulate people to be positive about trauma.