Unrecoverable Pain-A Study On An American Dream From The Perspective Of Trauma Theory

As a representative of postwar American writer,Norman Mailer(1923-2007)occupies very important position in contemporary American literature and cultural history.In An American Dream,the protagonist Rojack strangled his wife Deborah accidentally.Then he masked it as her suicidal jump in a highly skilled way.He succeeded in escaping the legal sanction finally.In just 32 hours he experienced a series of irrational activities and all kinds of sins of the American way of life.This article attempts to illustrate the novel from the angle of trauma theory by analyzing the trauma experiences and the recovery process of the characters,aiming to reveal the impacts the traumatic events have on characters in the works,and draw more public attention to trauma population.This thesis has five chapters.The first chapter briefly introduces the writer Norman Mailer and his literary achievements,general plot of An American Dream,the research at home and abroad,theoretical basis and feasibility and significance of this article.The second,third and forth sections are the main part of the article.In the second chapter,through a close reading of the text,the author points out the trauma symptoms of different characters in the novel,including loss of sense of self,depression,split personality,etc.The third chapter analyses the reasons accounting for the characters' trauma symptoms.The author analyzes the causes according to their own stories of the main characters in the book.For example,Rojack's trauma arises from the engagement in the WWII while black singer Shago suffers greatly from his identity under such background when racial discrimination is still common.The fourth chapter discusses different attitudes of the roles towards their own trauma and their ways of healing their trauma.The fifth chapter is the conclusion of the whole text,in which the author analyzes Norman Mailer's trauma from war and the recovering process of trauma by writing the novel,and also summarizes the traumatic theme this article aims to express.On the one hand,it aims to reveal the huge trauma social and personal traumatic events have brought.On the other hand,it also underline that people should raise the attention to trauma and healing of trauma so as to make joint efforts to establish healthy human nature,good interpersonal relationships,and a harmonious social environment.