A Study Of Bucky’s Psychological Trauma In Nemesis

Philip Milton Roth(1933-2018)is one of the most significant Jewish novelists in the United States after the World Wars.Nemesis,which is Roth’s last novel published in 2010,focuses on the traumatic experiences of Bucky,a Jewish youth,who always fights against his tragic fate.According to the available researches,most of the studies have focused on Nemesis from the perspective of narrative devices,heroic suffering,and ethical values at home and abroad.Based on the theory of trauma,this thesis starts with analyzing the psychological traumatic symptoms and underlying causes of Bucky’s trauma,and explains his efforts to recover from trauma.Moreover,this thesis reveals the reasons why the protagonist,driven by intense consciousness of guilt,fails to overcome his psychological trauma.Trauma refers to not only the physical injury caused by violent acts from others and the outside world,but also the psychological trauma caused by traumatic events.Through Nemesis,Roth aims to warn all human beings that trauma,like polio,can destroy people’s bodies,swallow one’s heart,and finally push people into spiritual hell.For the sake of discussion,Bucky’s psychological trauma could be understood from the three levels of his physical body,family background,and social environment,although they are interrelated.The first chapter of the thesis analyzes that Bucky is tortured by profound humiliation,anxiety,alienation,and other psychological sufferings,which indicates that his psychological traumas are attributed to physical disability,parental absence,and social discrimination.Bucky is obsessed with having a strong body,and eager to prove that the Jews are not weak virus carriers.However,due to his weak eyesight and short stature,Bucky is rejected by the American Army,and unable to join the World War II like other peers,which leads to his deep shame and humiliation.Besides,his mother died of dystocia,his father was put into prison for theft,and he was adopted by his grandparents.The restless environment and the living conditions in Jewish slums make Bucky feel helpless and insecure.The outbreak of 1944 Polio epidemic in Newark,the main plot of the novel,provides aspecific background for Bucky’s emotional alienation and loneliness,which highlights the American social discrimination against the Jewish people and the exclusion to the Jewish ethnic group.The second chapter expounds Bucky’s struggles against his psychological trauma and dissects the main reasons for his failure to stop the spread of the epidemic and to change the prejudice of the mainstream society against the Jews.The adult Bucky becomes a sturdy and determined physical education teacher.He makes every effort to protect his students,help others,and break the Jews’ stereotype of being weak to reduce his inner humiliation.However,Bucky fails to stop his students’ infections.The inner guilt aggravates his psychological trauma and depraves his will,which forces him to retreat into love and to seek a safe harbor in order to alleviate his sense of insecurity and hopelessness caused by parental absence.Moreover,Bucky positively attempts to connect with the community and to take more responsibility to help more people.However,all his efforts are in vain because of the uncontrolled plague and children’s deaths.The merciless accusations by students’ parents and discrimination of colleagues destroy Bucky’s final battle with the disease.Facing the unbearable fear and anxiety,he chooses to escape.The third chapter reveals that Bucky’s failures to overcome psychological trauma lead to his self-destruction.Bucky’s escape brings him a moment of peace,but the irrepressible sense of humiliation continues afflicting his heart.A week later,he is diagnosed as a polio carrier,which ultimately destroys his life.His maimed body,grandmother’s death,intimate friend’s sacrifice,and living place destroyed in a racial riot thoroughly make him lose the sense of safety and belonging.Endless shame and a strong consciousness of guilt result in his self-negation and disconnection from the outside world.Giving up the hope of life,Bucky entangles himself in profound humiliation and guilt,and ends up being alone.He is struck by the plague,and the disruptive feelings of psychological trauma swallow his strong will.Finally,he is mired in spiritual predicament.For Bucky and even some other traumatized Jews,the psychological trauma,just like polio,can wreak destruction on them psychologically as well as physically,and ultimately destroy their life.The conclusion points out that Bucky’s psychological trauma is the consequence of his disfigured body,departure of families,and indifferent social environment.Bucky’s personal tragedy comes not only from the insuperable mental predicament,but also from the rooted social prejudice.His tragedy comes not only from spiritual predicament but also from the exclusion of society.Philip Roth highlights the Jewish youth’s failure to recover his psychological trauma in the specific social environment of polio to expose the causes and influences of psychological trauma through literary techniques.Moreover,Roth demonstrates that Bucky’s trauma is the epitome of discrimination and exclusion of the entire Jews.Since people’s prejudice,like polio in the novel,can cause the plague,it should be eradicated.Otherwise,there will be countless people like Bucky who ends up with the tragedy,the “inevitable failure” as implied by the title of the novel.