Existential Predicament And Breakthrough

A Thousand Acres is Smiley’s most famous masterpiece.It won the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1991 and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1992.Smiley establishes her status in the literary world.Since A Thousand Acres published,it has attracted much concern and research interest at home and abroad.Critics mainly studied A Thousand Acres from the perspective of eco-feminism and intertextuality.Few critics have paid attention to characters’ trauma in the novel.This thesis employs trauma theory to explore domestic trauma,social trauma and ways to recover from trauma.By writing trauma and the ways to recover from trauma,Smiley shows concern for human beings’ existential situation.There are lots of traumatic events in modern society.This thesis aims to achieve its importance by studying how the novel helps people face trauma,recover from trauma and live a better life.This thesis consists of three parts.The first part is an introduction.It provides information about Smiley’s writing style,A Thousand Acres,literature review and trauma theory.The second part is the body which consists of three chapters.Chapter one studies domestic trauma.Characters in A Thousand Acres have experienced lots of domestic traumatic events which include child abuse,unfair and inharmonious relationship between husbands and wives,and sisters’ competition.It also exposes that reasons which cause domestic trauma are patriarchy and absence of love.It also mainly analyzes Rose and Ginny’s traumatic symptoms such as hatred,amnesia and fear.Women and children are main victims who suffer from domestic trauma.By clearly portraying domestic trauma which is easy to be neglected,Smiley aims at arousing the public’s concern for women and children’s fate and existential predicament.Chapter two focuses on social trauma.Characters’ social trauma is mainly caused by social principle and economic pressure.Memory disorders,alienation and hatred are Larry and peter’s traumatic syndromes.Depicting social trauma,Smiley criticizes patriarchy and materialism in American society and expresses her worries about human beings’ predicament.Chapter three explores ways to recover from trauma.By building safety,talking cure and pursuing self,Rose and Ginny recover from trauma.Because of absence of communication,men fail to achieve recovery.The third part is a conclusion.Women’s trauma in A Thousand Acres is also an intergenerational trauma.It costs several generations’ efforts to recover from trauma.Writing trauma,Smiley shows her worries about human beings’ existential predicament and sharply criticizes patriarchy and materialism.Writing about approaches of recovery from trauma,Smiley shows her confidence that people can recover from trauma and live a better life.