A Study On All God’s Chillun Got Wings From The Perspective Of Trauma Theory

Eugene O’Neill(1888-1953)is a famous American dramatist,who won the Pulitzer Prize four times and the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1936.He has made great contributions to the development of American drama and is hailed as the “Father of American Drama”.Eugene O’Neill’s traumatic experience is an important driving force in his dramatic creation,and his creation provides a vent for the release and recovery of his trauma.O’Neill’s All God’s Chillun Got Wing,published in 1923,reproduces the love tragedy of white Ella and black Jim,and exposes the evil of racial discrimination in America.Racial discrimination has always affected the feelings between Jim and Ella,forcing them into a dilemma of love and hate.Their emotions have always been in a state of contradiction.Eventually,the marriage crushed both of them.Since its debut,scholars have been making a profound analysis of the play from various perspectives,such as religion,feminism and archetypal criticism.The traumatic elements in this drama have also attracted the attention of some scholars,but this play lacks systematic research in this angle.It is undeniable that the hero and heroine in the play have their own trauma,which affect them all the time,and their tragic ending is closely related to these trauma.Guided by trauma theory,the thesis analyzes the traumatic symptoms of the hero and heroine,the causes of their trauma,the impact of traumatic events on them and the different strategies they take in the face of trauma.It also discusses O’Neill’s concerns about social issues,especially trauma,in this play.In addition to the parts of Introduction and Conclusion,the thesis is divided into five chapters.The introduction part firstly gives a brief review of Eugene O’Neill’s drama creation,the plot of All Gods Chillun Got Wings and its literature review at home and abroad.Then it points out that trauma is a relatively new perspective in the analysis of the play,followed by the significance of the thesis.Chapter One provides an overview of trauma theory,briefly introducing the origin and development of trauma theory,and symptoms as well as the healing methods of trauma,which lays a theoretical foundation for the forthcoming analysis.Chapter Two,starting with Eugene O’Neill’s growing experience,points out that O’Neill has a traumatic complex and an impulse to expose his trauma,finding out the psychological motivation for O’Neill to create All God’s Chillun Got Wings.O’Neill’s trauma mainly comes from three aspects: family trauma,social trauma and love trauma.For O’Neill,his parents’ disharmonious relationship in his original family is the most influential trauma to him,and the pain is the most persistent.Many of his works are based on the disharmonious marital relationship between his parents,and this play is no exception.As an Irish descendant,the issue of race has always been the knot in O’Neill’s heart.The non-mainstream identity in society constitutes O’Neill’s social trauma,which is merged into his creation.O’Neill yearned for perfect love and marriage,but two successive failed marriages gave him a big blow,which turn into his motivation of creation.His characters always fail to have perfect love.No matter how hard the protagonists struggle against their fate,they always end up in failure and can never break free from the control of fate.Chapter Three explores the personal trauma symptoms of the hero and heroine and the collective traumatic symptom of black people in this play.The characters have been influenced by racial discrimination since their childhood,internalizing racist perception.The background of such an era is a tragedy for them,and in the tragic environment,they create tragedies for each other.The traumatic events influence their normal communications with the outside world,undermine their interpersonal relationships,and further affect their identity constructions,making them suffer a lot and fall into loneliness and helplessness.Chapter Four explains the origin of the trauma.Racial discrimination,career failure,ridicule and betrayal from others,desertion from relatives and friends,and hostility of strangers are the main causes.These problems are beyond the reach of normal human beings,which turn into trauma waylaying the victims in their hearts.Chapter Five focuses on the different reactions of two protagonists to trauma.The hero Jim is always contradictory,and he finally relies on the help of religion to get rid of the trauma,but the heroine Ella finally succumbs to trauma and chooses to escape,becoming crazy and destroying her later life.The conclusion part summarizes the whole thesis.All God’s Chillun Got Wings is a play written by O’Neill based on his personal life experience,which exposes the destructive mental trauma brought by social prejudice.The tragedy in the play is not only the tragedy of the hero and heroine,but also the tragedy of the whole society.Eugene O’Neill has taken into account social and family issues in this play,which has made the work a great artistic appeal.Racial discrimination and prejudice in the play still exist in the United States today,and their experiences take place on everyone in different forms.People with similar experiences should eliminate their inherent prejudice,get rid of the shadow of psychological trauma and realize harmony between people.