A Study Of The9/11Attacks’ Impacts On The U.S. From Trauma Perspective In Reign Over Me, Brothers And The Visitor

This thesis explores the changes of civilians, soldiers and ethnic minority in the UnitedStates brought by9/11and the reason of the changes. Three post-9/11movies Reign Over Me,Brothers, and The Visitor are chosen as texts and analyzed from the perspective of trauma. Thestudy on Charlie’s family trauma in Reign Over Me, Sam’s war trauma in Brothers and Tarek’ssocial trauma in The Visitor is inspired by Li Guirong’s Trauma Narrative in which she classifiestrauma by the setting. Since study about the post-9/11movies is not available in China so far, thethesis will make a contribution to the study in this field.9/11terrorist attacks is a collective trauma. It changes the identity of the Americans. Thecivilians who suffers family trauma like Charlie lead miserable lives. And those who do notchanged their attitude and behavior. They would put up with the inconveniences and sacrifice ofrights to fight against the terrorism. This should be ascribed to the elite responses. The militaryand immigration policies have a huge impact on soldiers, Arabs and Muslims. The “just”Afghanistan war causes soldiers’ war trauma which makes living the civilian life impossible forthem. The post-9/11immigration policy crowds the Arabs and Muslims—the “Other” out of thedominant culture, which gives them social trauma. The fundermental cause of associating theArabs and Muslims with the terrorists lies in the Orientalism in American’s subconscious.This thesis contains four chapters and a conclusion. The first chapter is the briefintroduction to the background of9/11, three movies and trauma theory. The second chapterconcerns about the formation, representation and healing process of Charlie’s family trauma, thechanges brought by9/11to the American public and the cause of the changes. The third chapteranalyses the formation and representation of Sam’s war traum, the changes of the soldiers and the cause of the changes. The fourth chapter analyses Tarek’s social trauma, the changes of theArabs and Muslims and the cause of the changes. The last chapter is conclusion.