Survival Or Destruction-Study Of The Bluest Eye From The Trauma Theory

The Bluest Eye was published in1970. It is the first novel of Toni Morrison, thefamous black American woman writer who received the Nobel Prize for Literature in1993. The book has gained widespread attention since its publication, and Morrisonhas also become an indispensable representative in the history of American literature.The previous critics mostly concerned about the racial problems involved in this novel;many other researchers carried out in-depth discussion on this book from theperspective of feminism, post-colonialism, psychoanalysis, and so on. With the furtherdevelopment of narratology, the researches on this book focus on Morrison’s narrativestyle.The heroine of The Bluest Eye Pecola is an eleven-year-old girl. She is caught ina marginalized social status. Racial discrimination, economic poverty and theindifference of the black community result in her psychological trauma. Unfortunately,she lives in a dysfunctional family which is lack of love. Her mother’s coldness andalienation towards Pecola causes indelible trauma to Pecola. After the beating of hermother, Pecola shows more significant traumatic symptoms. Raped by her father,Pecola gives birth to a dead baby; she is also dropped out of school. Afterexperiencing a series of traumatic events, Pecola eventually falls into madness.This thesis interprets the novel from the theory of trauma. By the analysis ofPecola’s suffering of traumatic experiences and the responses when she faces trauma,the thesis explores the underlying causes of her madness and failure of recovery fromtrauma. In addition to the introduction and conclusion, the thesis consists of threeparts:The introduction gives a brief description of the author and the novel, and makesa review of studies on the novel from home and abroad. Furthermore, the thesisbriefly introduces the significance of the study, and then gives a general introductionto the theoretical basis of this thesis, including the definition of trauma, thedevelopment of trauma theory, and the effects of trauma to the victims and the wayout of trauma.The first chapter analyzes Pecola’s traumatic suffering. As a black living in the bottom of the society, Pecola is discriminated in the mainstream of the Americansociety; racism and extreme poverty render Pecola to be marginalized in the society.Pecola can’t receive support and love from her family, her mother’s domestic abuseand the incestuous rape of her father makes her suffer severe psychological wound.The second chapter mainly analyzes Pecola’s traumatic symptoms in face oftrauma events. She demonstrates extreme sense of helplessness, a sense of isolation,irresolvable fear and the fantasy of blue eyes. In addition, Pecola also displays atraumatic symptom of dissociation, which is reflected by split self-awareness and lossof self-identity.The third chapter explores the underlying causes of Pecola’s failure of recoveryfrom trauma and the reconstruction of self. Pecola’s mental demise is closely relatedwith the indifferent black community, the dysfunctional motherhood and her distortedidentification.The last part of the thesis draws a conclusion that Pecola’s individual trauma isclosely linked with the whole social environment. The black people should adhere totheir own cultural traditions, develop independent self-consciousness and establish afirm link within the black community, so as to achieve the wholeness of survival inracial collision.