A Study Of Cultural Trauma In William Styron’s Sophie’s Choice

The novel Sophie’s Choice by contemporary American writer William Styron attracted many readers in 1979 and became a must-read for American college students.In 1980,it won the National Book Award.Based on the perspective of Southern young writer Stingo,the novel describes the love tragedy and emotional entanglement between himself,the Polish Auschwitz survivor Sophie and the Jewish youth Nathan,and exposes Sophie’s miserable experiences in Auschwitz,thus showing the readers a new perspective on the nature of Auschwitz and sparking the reader’s deep thoughts and vigilance.This paper uses cultural trauma as an entry point to conduct a detailed analysis of the novel Sophie’s Choice to explore William Styron’s deep insights on the Holocaust.Cultural trauma is a theory put forward by sociologist Jeffrey Alexander.When individuals and groups experience a painful experience together and it leaves an indelible influence on their consciousness,cultural trauma occurs.The traumatic event itself does not constitute a trauma,but the meaning of the traumatic event provides a feeling of shock and fear.When the event is explained in social culture,the cultural trauma is constructed.The construction of cultural trauma requires the speaker to project a traumatic claim to the audience.In the novel Sophie’s Choice,as the first speaker,Sophie projected her trauma claim to Stingo and Nathan.They were successfully persuaded by her trauma claim.Twenty years later,Stingo wrote all of their stories after Sophie and Nathan’s suicide,projecting a traumatic claim to the audience of the book,and letting readers understand the meaning behind Auschwitz and share the sufferings of the victims.Through a detailed analysis of the speaker,the audience and the trauma claim in the novel,this paper expounds how the cultural trauma of the Holocaust was constructed in the novel.Cultural trauma has a profound impact on various social groups.This paper mainly analyzes the cultural trauma symptoms of the Jewish group represented by Nathan and the Polish group represented by Sophie.Cultural trauma has caused an identity crisis on Jewish people.The most obvious evidence is that the Jewish faith that constitutes Jewish identity has collapsed.The pain of genocide has driven them to question the existence of God.Sophie,who also suffered tremendous pain,also gave up her faith in Catholicism and even attempted to commit suicide in the church to vent her resentment against God.In addition,the Jews also suffered from a crisis of trust,and the endless fear of survival made their distrust of other groups gradually deepen.This paper also explores the recovery of cultural trauma by analyzing the attempts of the three main characters adopted to recover from trauma.Through writing,while constructing a cultural trauma,Stingo is also repairing the cultural trauma for himself.It also identifies the root causes of fear and suffering caused by Auschwitz,and warns the world not to repeat the same mistakes in civilization.From the perspective of cultural trauma,this paper makes a comprehensive interpretation of the construction,symptoms and recovery of the cultural trauma of the Holocaust in Sophie’s Choice,and contributes to the study of the novel.