An Analysis Of Light In August From The Perspective Of Trauma Theory

William Faulkner was one of the most important writers in the history of 20 th century American literature. He was awarded the 1949 Nobel Prize in Literature. Light in August, Faulkner’s seventh novel, was first published on October 6, 1932 in the United States and also one of the most important, the most challenging and the most frequently commented masterpieces. Light in August occupies the important position in Yoknapatawpha series that is created by Faulkner, and it has a multi-clue and complicated plot structure. Therein, it is mainly on the two parallel-contrast clues: one tells the tragic experience of Joe Christmas, which constitutes the main content of the novel; the other tells the story in which a kind-hearted rural girl Lena looked for her lover on foot,and it is the integral framework of the novel. The story of Hightower, between the two parallel-contrast clues, not only has its own significance, but gives full play to the comment function that is similar to the reader or the third person in the novel’s narrative pattern. Although the whole story took only a short period of ten days from beginning to end, it involved several characters’ lives, even including the family history of three generations from their grandparents. They all had the unfortunate experiences of the American Civil War and Reconstruction and left painful mental traumas on their offspring.In Light in August, Faulkner successfully created all kinds of characters with abnormal behaviors who have different degrees of mental traumas caused by the social and personal reasons. Therefore, this thesis attempts to analyze Light in August from the perspective of trauma theory. The study of trauma not only has the profound literary significance, but also has the widespread practical significance in contemporary society.This thesis is composed of six parts including an introduction and a conclusion. The introduction first gives a brief account of the life experience of Faulkner and the main idea of Light in August, then provides literature reviews about the study of Light in August in China as well as abroad, and finally points out the research focus and significance of this thesis.Chapter One introduces trauma theory including concept of trauma, the origin and the development of trauma, especially trauma theory studied in literature is mentioned. Reading this novel as trauma fiction can be proved from the tone of the novel and the writing technique.Chapter Two chiefly analyzes the traumatic symptoms of the main characters in the novel, which include the uncertain whereabouts, violence and dissociation of Joe Christmas; repression of desire, depravity of sex and imprisonment of soul of Joanna Burden; and dual personality and glorious history’s repetition of Gail Hightower.Chapter Three, based on the analyses of the main characters with the traumatic symptoms, the thesis paper tries to find out the causes of it. Among these causes, it not only contains the social and historical reasons, but also has characters’ own responsibilities. The town of Jefferson which is portrayed in Light in August is a typical southern society of America to some extent. Both American Civil War and Reconstruction cause the mental traumas that are hard to heal for people in that time. Jefferson has been heavily clouded by the kind of strong psychological shadow. The causes of the main characters’ traumas are the discrimination of race, the oppression of religion, unfortunate experiences of grandparents and the frustration of personal growth.Chapter Four centers on the recovery from trauma. There are different adaptations of trauma for people, so some characters can recover from the traumatic events. The protagonist of the novel Joe Christmas endeavors to pursue his own identity and figures out who he is in his life. In the final moments of life, he realizes what he needs in life is just simple peace. Joe Christmas sublates himself, reincarnates himself and achieves self redemption. Hightower feels vitality and delight of life after helping Lena deliver a child, and he agrees to help Joe Christmas under the influence of Byron. He finally gets rid of the nightmare in the past and realizes his former fault. He is aware that human beings should be interdependent with each other in the real life. Hightower returns to the real world through autognosis.The last part is the conclusion. Through the analysis of the main characters’ traumatic reasons, the author can gain a better understanding of the social environment and their bitter encounters at that time. With these factors, the author can comprehend the work better. Meanwhile, the traumatic study on the novel also gives us the realistic thinking. As for the individuals, the effects of trauma are profound and enormous; especially the psychological trauma that developed in the childhood will play an interruptive role in the formation of good manners and personality in the future. We should pay attention to the psychological problems and reduce the defects in the process of personal growth. As for society, although the racial discrimination has been contained, religious depression has been rejected, and the trauma of history has been faded over time, these issues have not completely been resolved yet. We are making every possible effort all the time. We should prevent these sufferings from occurring once more including the tragedy of Joe Christmas and Hightower’s and Burden’s encounters throughout the world. We should make a contribution to building a happy and harmonious society that is filled with the equality of race and the freedom of religion.