A Traumatic Study Of Kazuo Ishiguro's The Remains Of The Day

As a sympathetic international writer,Kazuo Ishiguro is well-known in the world for his precise grasp of the psychology of the little characters in the grand history.Most of his works are committed to reflecting the common experience of human beings— loss and pain through the portrayal of the struggling characters in the difficult situations.Kazuo Ishiguro's third novel,The Remains of the Day,won the highest award in English literature— the Booker Prize in 1989.It is written in the way of the protagonist Stevens' diary,and presented from the perspective of Steven's first-person memories which reveal his painful inner world.While deeply portraying the individual's psychology,this novel also shows the social background of the decline of the British Empire.By applying trauma theory and psychoanalysis,this paper explores the trauma theme in The Remains of the Day.It is divided into three chapters.Based on the symptoms of “post-traumatic stress disorder”— “hyperarousal”,“constriction” and “intrusion” and the characteristic distortion of traumatic memory,the first chapter analyzes Stevens' behavioral and psychological characteristics which parallel the traumatic symptoms,thus presenting how psychological trauma makes the traumatized people suffer.The second chapter explores the causes of Stevens' psychological pain,namely,the abnormal relationship of paternal attachment,the inherited psychological and behavioral patterns,the impaired self-perception,the scapegoat effect,and the cognition and habits which were cultivated in the traumatic environment.The third chapter points out that Stevens' six-day trip to the southwest of the Great Britain is a journey of psychological recovery,explaining that the healing of trauma first requires unfolding traumatic memories through the interpersonal emotional support,acknowledging the inner true feelings and then reconstructing the traumatic stories.At the same time,through "self-compassion",the traumatized people can rebuild their self-worth,and by overthrowing the old-fashioned cognition formed in the traumatic environment,the traumatized people can finally rebuild the interpersonal connection and achieve the recovery.At the end of the novel,Stevens finally reaches reconciliation with his painful past.Such a warm ending undoubtedly reveals Kazuo Ishiguro's sympathy towards the lives of the ordinary people.In the literary form,Kazuo Ishiguro successfully practiced the narrative of the unspeakable traumatic experiences,and to a certain extent,let the traumatized people around the world see the possibility and hope of psychological recovery.