Psychological Trauma And Healing In Jennifer Egan’s A Visit From The Goon Squad

As one of the prominent contemporary American writers, Jennifer Egan(1962-) shows her deep concerns for those who are suffering from great pressure, even psychological illness under the context of cultural shifts in many of her works. In A Visit from the Goon Squad(2010), Egan also portrays many characters with psychological illness to reflect people’s psychological states when facing the vicissitudes of rock industry.Based on Judith Lewis Herman’s view of psychological trauma, this thesis reveals Egan’s appeals for modern people to create harmonious family environment and cultural atmosphere through analyzing the psychological trauma of the main characters facing the cultural shifts as the shifts of family structure and of rock music industry and the ways for healing the trauma as well. First, through exploring Sasha and Lincoln’s helplessness for living in the father-absent family brought by the shift of family structure, this thesis highlights Egan’s idea of the importance of harmonious family to the growths of children mentally and psychologically. Second, this thesis illustrates Bennie and Scotty’s anxiety disorder when facing the shift of rock music industry. By analyzing Bennie and Scotty’s career frustration when blending themselves into the digital rock music industry, this thesis discloses Egan’s proposition for modern people to reflect on cultural amalgamation. Third, by tracking their ways of healing from psychological trauma, this thesis presents Egan’s commitment to their flexible tactics to adapt themselves to the society in cultural shifts.In sum, by analyzing psychological trauma and healing in A Visit from the Goon Squad, this thesis is expected to provide references for people in the similar predicaments to achieve the integration of their selves when facing psychological trauma under the context of social transitions. Meanwhile, this thesis also presents Egan’s yearning for creating a new prospect for harmonious human relationships and harmonious coexistence of multiple cultures, which can also provide inspirations for modern people to establish harmonious society.