Traumatic Memories And Causes Of Tragedy In Light In August

Light in August is a masterpiece written by the well-known American novelist William Faulkner.Its protagonist,Joe Christmas is a mulatto with white skin.As a suffocating tragedy,Christmas’ story includes elements of classical Greek tragedy and characteristics of Faulknerian tragedy.Factors contributing to his tragic life are various.In this thesis,the author attempts to analysis its tragic theme from the perspective of traumatic memories,which is of some innovation.The author believes that the traumatic memories Christmas suffered in his boyhood are responsible for his life tragedy.This will be explained by the thesis from three chapters.In Chapter One,the source of Christmas’ s traumatic memories are categorized into three types,which are gender trauma,religious trauma and racial trauma.In accordance with trauma-related theories,the author will explain why certain events happening in his childhood constituted his traumas and left traumatic memories.In Chapter Two,the mental disorders,or traumatic symptoms resulting from traumatic memories will be analyzed.Traumatic symptoms further distorted the protagonist’s personality and deepened his tragedy.In Chapter Three,the author will make her attempt to evaluate the possibility of Christmas’ recovery from traumatic memories and explain why he failed to do so.The problems contributing to his failure in recovery have long existed in Southern America,which are impossible to be solved by an individual.Therefore,Christmas’ tragic life is doomed.From the perspective of trauma,this thesis connected the macro and micro,social and individual facts which resulted in Christmas’ trauma,providing an innovative way to understand the theme of Light in August.Taking this into consideration,this thesis is meaningful in literature research.