Traumatization And Recovery Of The Characters In By The Light Of My Father's Smile

Alice Walker is concerned about the fate of the colored people,especially black women,whose miserable life is well manifested in many of her works,and By the Light of My Father's Smile is one of them.Researchers have mostly studied the novel concentrating on the themes of violence,homosexuality,patriarchy,womanism and narrative technique,however,the traumatic theme of the novel has been neglected.This thesis interprets the traumatic experience of the characters in the novel from the perspective of trauma theory.Based on the trauma theory of Cathy Caruth and Judith Herman,this thesis aims to highlight the theme of trauma in By the Light of My Father's Smile and justify that it is a very typical novel on trauma.By analyzing a series of traumatic experiences and symptoms of the main characters in the novel,it is`found that their traumas are caused by their suffering from racial discrimination and patriarchal oppression.Magdalena's catastrophic experiences in childhood deform her personality and cause her nonsexual life and death at an early age.Besides,Susannah's childhood trauma destroys her marriage,which makes her convert between heterosexual and homosexual love.Pauline is also ruined by her trauma in childhood for her suffering from the betrayal and rape.Fortunately,under the guidance of Mundo culture,all the main victims of trauma get recovered in different ways.It concludes that Alice Walker is greatly concerned about the colored people's sufferings.It also appeals to people to pay attention to the traumatized group and hopefully,it will help the study of trauma in the social aspect.