A Study On The Theme Of Women's Initiation In Alice Walker's Novels From The Perspective Of Trauma Theory

Alice Walker(1944-)is an American black womanist writer.Her novel The Color Purple(1982)won the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award in 1983.Her works mainly illustrate feminism of black women,and air black women's grievances to help them find their position in the society.Based on the trauma theory,the theme of women's initiation in Alice Walker's three novels Meridian,The Color Purple,and By the Light of My Father's Smile is analyzed.Through the analysis of women's trauma during the process of their growing up,the change of Walker's understanding towards women's initiation at different periods is explored.In Meridian,The Color Purple and By the Light of My Father's Smile,Walker describes different women characters whose ways of growing up differ from each other.In Meridian,the woman character achieves the construction of self-identity and heals her own trauma under the influence of external environment.In The Color Purple,the woman character finds her self-identity and find a cure for her wound with the help of sisterhood.In By the Light of My Father's Smile,the women characters get serenity in the heart through reconciliation with men and attain recovery from it.Through the analysis of the women characters' traumas in these three novels,this thesis finds that in Meridian Walker describes how a woman fights for black women's rights alone,and women characters in The Color Purple unite together,and in By the Light of My Father's Smile,women characters give up the hatred and reconcile with men.These three novels reflect the changes of Walker's attitude towards women's initiation in different periods,which indicates Walker is always devoted to seeking the way of growing up for women and shows her concern towards them.Besides,this thesis provides a new perspective to later studies on Alice Walker's novels by analyzing the theme of women's initiation in Walker's novels under trauma theory.In addition,this thesis makes contributions to further relevant studies in the future.