Trauma In Jonathan Franzen's Purity

Jonathan Franzen's masterpiece Purity stretches over half an century across several countries in continents of America and Europe.It revolves about the protagonist's journey to find out her mysterious father.Purity concentrates on traumatic experiences in daily life and portrays the social problems.The thesis tries to analyze trauma from perspectives of symptoms,causes and recovery attempts guided by Judith Herman's trauma theory.The first part analyzes trauma as a major thematic concern in Purity from traumatic symptoms of characters in Purity.Trauma usually intrudes into people's minds repetitively and uncontrollably in different forms of flashback,dream and hallucination.Besides,traumatized people will automatically constrict the traumatic consciousness by avoidance of reality and self isolation.Under the impact of trauma,double thinking and double identity may frequently occur with contradictory thoughts.The second part explores the reasons for trauma in Purity from aspects of individual,family and society.The guilt of immoral or illegal wrongdoings haunts the traumatized people.In dysfunctional families,the blissful state of marriage and healthy growth of children couldn't be guaranteed.Moreover,Franzen criticizes the oppressive society.Patriarchal ideas squeeze and restrict female space of freedom and development.Franzen depicts the common grounds of personality cult and information surveillance between the Internet age and the German Democratic Republic.The third part discusses the difficulties to deal with trauma.The traumatized attempt to recover from trauma by dominating trauma or submitting to trauma,both of which establish unequal relationship with trauma.Achievement of fame and power may create the illusion of dominating trauma,which is ineffective because trauma still couldn't be eliminated.Submitting to trauma by suppression of traumatic memories and escape from reality will only further aggravates the fear for trauma.The last part suggests the possible solutions to recover from trauma through correct attitudes and behaviors towards the past and the future.Through self-compassion and self-acceptance,traumatized people can face trauma and transform the traumatic memories into normal memories by analyzing,reflecting and finally integrating traumatic experiences into part of oneself.In addition,the sense of achievement and recognition from pursuing substantial jobs contributes to establish personal value.Social connection is also helpful to let off negative feelings and in the same time receive comfort and support from family members,friends and lovers.The thesis aims to reflect social problems by analyzing trauma among morbid families.Furthermore,the thesis provides an insight into the recovery of trauma by reestablishing a wholesome identity,emphasizing the dynamic and initiative roles of human in agony.