Trauma And Recovery

Isaac Bashevis Singer is one of the most outstanding American Jewish writers in the twentieth century.Being a Jewish writer,he is the second winner of the Nobel Prize for literature.Singer pays close attention to Polish Jews' lives constantly owing to his own life experiences and most of his works reflect all sorts of traumas that Polish Jews has suffered.Shosha is Singer's most excellent work among his novels and it depicts the protagonists Aaron and Shosha's family,racial and social traumatic experiences on the eve of the holocaust and the process of recovering from trauma.Most studies abroad or at home on Shosha focus on theme,prototype,feminism and other angles,but few people use trauma theory to analyze it.This thesis simply introduces Singer's life experiences,main works and writing style.Furthermore,it summarizes the main content of Shosha and the researches on it abroad or at home.In the theory part,this thesis introduces the definition and classification of trauma theory.Trauma theory can be divided into three aspects which are trauma symptom,trauma cause and trauma recovery.In the body part,this thesis uses trauma theory to analyze Singer's Shosha.It discusses which traumas that the protagonists in Shosha have suffered,what kinds of symptom they show and how they cure their traumas and return to normal lives.According to trauma theory,natural calamities,accidental disasters and man-maid disasters may cause victims traumas.The injuries that different traumatic experiences cause are different,so victims will show different symptoms.Aiming at these symptoms and causes,most victims choose three methods which are the establishment of security and confidence,remembrance and mourning and reconnection with others to recover from their traumas.The protagonists Aaron and Shosha suffer family,racial and social trauma and show various degrees of trauma symptoms,which are hyperarousal,intrusion and constriction.In the end,they get recovered from trauma by reconnecting the relationship with friends and families and telling stories to each other.This thesis is intended to explore the protagonists' trauma causes,analyze their trauma symptoms and then expose the methods of their trauma recovery by studying the traumas that the protagonists have suffered in Shosha.It appeals to everyone to face their traumas reasonably,reconnect with friends and families,communicate with each other in time,seek effective methods of trauma recovery and then realize their self-salvation.