Cracks And Crisis: A Study Of Trauma In Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye

Toni Morrison is the first African-American female writer who has won the Noble Prize in Literature.Her first novel The Bluest Eye was published in 1970,telling about a black little girl named Pecola who is suffering from social discrimination and domestic abuse during her growth.Pecola longs for blue eyes which in her belief symbolize beauty,wishing to change her life and integrate herself into the society,however she ultimately ends up with madness.Applying trauma theory,this thesis analyzes the characterization in the novel from three aspects:representation of trauma,traumatic memory and recovery from trauma.By discussing their traumatic symptoms,their traumatic memory and traumatic events,as well as their efforts to recover,this thesis demonstrates that the white cultural dominance and the ineradicable racial discrimination lead to the lack of self-identification and racial identification in black groups,which further causes their psychological cracks and crisis.Moreover,this thesis analyzes the impact of trauma on character and values,and discusses different methods applied by different characters to deal with trauma,so as to explore the effective approaches and positive significance of recovery.In addition to introduction and conclusion,this thesis is composed of three chapters.Chapter one mainly discusses the representation of collective trauma and individual trauma.It deals with black adults and black children’s symptoms of inferiority,self-negation,helplessness and vulnerability from the perspective of collective trauma.Then it explicates the manifestations of symptoms of the Breedlove family members from the perspective of individual trauma,demonstrating Cholly’s disordered defenses,Pauline’s shame and doubt,as well as Pecola’s mental dissociation.Chapter two explores the characters’ traumatic memory and traumatic events.By analyzing the racial discrimination in the society,the alienated parenthood in family,and the specific traumatic events experienced by the main characters,this chapter explores the causes of trauma,and discusses the impact on people’s emotion and cognition.Chapter three analyzes different characters’ different recovering approaches,trying to illuminate that some characters such as Claudia and Frieda achieve recovery by establishing alliances,recollecting traumatic stories and mourning traumatic loss,while some others represented by Pecola and Pauline indulge in illusion,deny their identity,and fail to reconnect with black community,which leads to their ultimate loss of self in trauma.Analyzing the characters’ experiences in The Bluest Eye,this thesis points out that only by reconstructing trauma story and restoring connections with black community,can the black group rebuild their self-identity and promote racial identity,thus repairing the mental cracks and surviving the psychological crisis.