Trauma And Recovery

Khaled Hosseini(1965-),an Afghan American,is a contemporary famous novelist.He has been known to the public since The Kite Runner was published in 2003.A Thousand Splendid Suns came out in 2007,which became his second masterpiece.In the novel,Hosseini chose the time from the 1970 s to early 21 st century of Afghanistan as the background and represented two ordinary girls as typical examples.A Thousand Splendid Suns told a heart-warming story about family,friendship,faith and redemption by thoroughly depicting the hope,despair and defiance in humanity.Most critics have interpreted the novel using the theory of feminism,new historicism,eco-feminism,initiation story,etc.However,there are few articles to explore it from the perspective of trauma and recovery theory,let alone a systematic analysis of the psychological trauma of female characters in the novel.Therefore,this paper will analyze the traumatic experiences of the two protagonists in A Thousand Splendid Suns from the perspective of traumatic theory,aiming to find out traumatic reasons and symptoms from the social system,family environment and warfare and to explain the severe physical and mental trauma they have suffered and their gradual recovery from such traumas by means of retelling their trauma story,rebuilding their sound relationship with others and re-establishing their identity.The purpose of this paper is to reveal the severe psychological trauma of Afghanistan women caused by the oppression of patriarchal society and devastation of war,to find a way out for the Afghanistan women and to call upon people to pay more attention to psychic trauma of women.This paper is divided into four parts.The first part briefly introduces the life of Khaled Hosseini and the main story of A Thousand Splendid Suns and reviews the current research work of the novel both at home and abroad and expounds its significance and purpose.The second part is the theoretical framework.It includes the main features of trauma and recovery theory,explaining that it is proper to use such a theory to analyze the traumatic symptoms and recovery of the two protagonists.The third part is the main part of this thesis.It firstly analyzes Mariam's and Laila's traumas and symptoms from three aspects: social system,domestic violence and turbulent wars.Then it introduces their attempts and endeavors to recover.First of all,without the love from parents,Mariam was full of anxiety and feared her future.So Mariam's mental health had been greatly traumatized.Secondly,the Afghan war destroyed Laila's happiness.Moreover,the terrible marriage afflicted Laila with domesticviolence.When Taliban was in power,Afghan women were deprived of their freedom.However,Mariam and Laila did not bow to reality,to domestic violence and unfair social restrictions on women.In their daily relationships,they not only gained mutual trust,but also shared past experiences together,helping each other to find their own values in society and eventually recovering from traumatic events.The fourth part is the conclusion part.The author of the paper holds that A Thousand Splendid Suns reveals injustice and trauma they have suffered in the Afghanistan society,which is full of turmoil and wars,violence and oppression and the novel also praises Mariam and Laila's efforts to recover.In the meantime,this paper also thinks that the novel conveys Hosseini's concern and sympathy for Afghanistan women in general.Afghan women experienced ups and downs during such special times of the Afghan history.A Thousand Splendid Suns of Khaled Hosseini,on the one hand,showed the traumas of Afghan women and their long restoration process.On the other hand,it also told people to pay attention to the physical and psychological health of women,so as to protect them from traumas.Besides,it also taught us that male and female should play their respective social roles and respect each other and that only in this way could the society be in a virtuous cycle and bring the real splendid suns.