Hero Mama:the Trauma Of Vietnam War To Americans

Karen Spears Zacharias is a renowned American writer, speaker, journalism instructor. Her non-fictional novel Hero Mama:A Daughter Remembers the Father She Lost in Vietnam-And the Mother Who Held Her Family Together has struck a sympathetic resonance among common American people and literary reviewers for its heart-breaking story and truthful reflection of the trauma of the Vietnam War. It has won a few awards, including the2002C. B. Blethen Award for Distinguished Feature Writing. An early draft of Hero Mama was awarded first place in the short story category by the Georgia Writers Association.In Hero Mama, Zacharias keeps a record of what has happened to her family after her father’s death in the Vietnam War. They were drowned into the nightmare of the death of their beloved. The thesis tries to throw light on the trauma caused by the war to the family and their circles of friends. The trauma imposed on her family by the war is the epitome of the complicated mental impact of the Vietnam War on almost all American Vietnam War veterans’families as well as the whole nation. The war trauma can never be avoided or got rid of. The only way to work through trauma is to face it bravely and directly.Analyzing Hero Mama from the traumatic perspective, my thesis serves as a supplement to the study of American Vietnam War literature. Chapter One is a brief introduction of Karen Spears Zacharias and Hero Mama. It also includes the layout and significance of the thesis. Chapter Two is the literature review. This part reviews the relevant study of American Vietnam War Literature at home and abroad as well as the theoretical basis of this thesis, that is, the trauma theory. Chapter Three focuses on the trauma to the narrator’s family brought by the death of her father in Vietnam as well as the trauma to the Vietnam War veterans. Chapter Four elaborates on the reasons why the American veterans, their family members and civilians were greatly traumatized by the Vietnam War. Chapter Five analyzes the writing techniques employed in Hero Mama, that is, New Journalism. The thesis concludes in Chapter Six that summarizes the literature value of Hero Mama as well as its implied realistic significance in facing up with the Vietnam War.