A Study Of Bobbie Ann Mason’s Writing Of Anxiety In In Country

Bobby Ann Mason（1940-）is a famous contemporary American writer.Most of her works reflect the social reality of Kentucky in the second half of the 20^thcentury.In Country is Mason’s first novel.Sam,a posthumous daughter of the Vietnam War,comes up with the idea of learning about her father and the Vietnam War when she graduates from high school.Sam’s uncle,Emmett,is a veteran.He is deeply affected by the trauma of the Vietnam War and lives with Sam.The novel centers on the life of Sam and Emmett and depicts the profound impact of the Vietnam War on the America people.Mainly based on the anxiety theory of Rollo May,a famous existential psychologist,this thesis explores anxieties of Sam as the second-generation victim of Vietnam War trauma.Rollo May defined anxiety as the response of one’s value as human existence is being threatened and considered anxiety as human’s ontological feature.To fight with anxiety,the individual needs to summon up courage,discover the root that renders internal conflicts and strengthen his or her self-awareness.Sam’s history questing endangers her existence,producing her anxieties.This research includes six chapters.Chapter one offers a brief introduction to Mason,In Country and its previous studies.Chapter two briefly introduces theories of anxiety in philosophy,psychology and literature.Chapter three discusses Sam’s presentation of anxiety on pursing the Vietnam War truths,on procreation and on death in terms of physiology,affection,behaviour,and cognition.Anxiety includes normal anxiety and neurotic anxiety.Once the normal anxiety is not effectively dealt with,it may develop into neurotic anxiety.Sam’s anxieties are ontological but some of her anxieties have certain characteristics of pathological anxiety,such as hypervigilance,thinking issues and uncontrollable frightening visual images.Chapter four explores the causes of Sam’s anxieties,which contain the breaking of Sam’s hero-worship complex of soldiers,disappointing history learning and dysfunctional family.Sam’s illusion of the war and her trust in history are shattered in the process of pursuing the war truths which threatens her existence,causing her anxiety.Chapter five discusses how Sam goes out of anxieties.By plucking up social and moral courage and actively understanding Emmett’s trauma,Sam learns that veterans are also tortured victims.She breaks away from dichotomy and reconciles with the dissonance in life,actualizing self-growth spiritually.The sixth chapter summarizes this thesis.In Country writes about the communal anxiety in American Southern small towns after the Vietnam War and it cares about people’s mental states,calling on readers’reflection on the war,which brings forth its social significance.