Trauma and Recovery：the Study on the Susannah’Traumatic Fate in By the Light of My Father’s Smile

陈雪莹++陈雪菲

Abstract：This paper intends to give an analysis of the Susannah traumatic memories in Alice Walkers famous novel---By the Light of My Fathers Smile. It investigates Susannahs physical and psychological trauma，analyzing how she works through her traumatic memories.

Key words：By the Light of My Fathers Smile；trauma and recovery；Susannah

1. Introduction

Alice Walker is an productive and versatile writer in American literature. In her works，she tries to find the solution to the problems faced by the black community，especially the fate of black women. In 1998，Walker published her novel--- By the Light of My Fathers Smile in which she describes the influence of a fathers violence on his two daughters.

This paper aims to explore how the Susannah suffers from trauma and how she recovers from trauma，which reflects how Alice Walker whoops for black womens liberation.

2. Trauma and recovery

2.1 Trauma

2.1.1 Traumatic symptoms of Susannah

Traumatic symptom includes re-experience. “Re-experience means that particular feelings and emotions that were associated with the past traumatic events can be constantly felt as they are happening in the present.” The survivor of trauma can re-experience the traumatic events through flashbacks and nightmares which are the common traumatic symptom.

Susannah often recalled the scene of fathers violence that happened in Mexico. Even for many years，her fathers fierce face came out usually and the sound of the whistling silver belt echoed in her mind. The scene replays frequently. Because of the psychic trauma，Susannah always lived in the shadow of her father and was unable to recover from the traumatic event. Through the flashbacks and nightmares，Susannah reexperiences her unhealed trauma often.

2.1.2 Causes of trauma

“Traumatic events are extraordinary，not because they occur rarely，but rather because they overwhelm the ordinary human adaptations to life”. As black women，Susannah suffered from not only the discrimination of the white，but also the control of her father who was the representative of both patriarchy and the white ethnicity.

In the eyes of Mr. Robinson，Susannah is a docile girl who innocently thinks that every action of her father is good for her. Under such distorted love，Mr. Robinson establishes a good image in the mind of Susannah. When witnessing her gentle，compassionate father turn into tyrannical person，she suffered from great hit which led to great trauma to her mind.

In recent centuries，racial discrimination has existed in America. In the white society，the black community is inferior，which leaves them indelible traumatic memories and even influences their future life as well. In order to improve their social status，the black people must imitate the lifestyle of the whites.

Mr. Robinson took the mission as a priest to study Mundo people from the requirement of the whites. He thought the whites were noble and their thought was distingue. He imitated the white peoples lifestyle and educated his daughter with the whites thought. Under the condition of the thought of the superior white ethnicity，Susannah observed to every arrangement of her father. This appurtenant and submissive position brought bad impacts on forming her good personality，which left intangible trauma to her mind. She didnt know how to make a choice at the mercy of herself，as well as lack of the consciousness to pursue liberation and freedom.

2.2 Recovery

Recovery is the necessary result of traumatic events. Retelling and listening is also a good way to heal the wound. The survivor always cant recover from the trauma by himself. Due to the listener，the survivor can bravely retell and share his traumatic experience.

2.2.1 Susannahs Retelling

With the growing of Susannah，she is aware of the existence of trauma and intends to get out of it. She tries to communicate with her sister about the traumatic memories and commonly work through trauma while the irrational sister always intends to destroy her life.

The good relationship with Pauline plays an important role in Susannahs recovery. Susannah and Pauline share their feelings with each other. Through Paulines trauma in childhood，she understands her own childhood more，and then she reconsiders her fathers love with restrain. The homosexual love brings a lot of warm to Susannahs wounded heart，which makes Susannah gradually relieve from the pain of her traumatic memory.

During the journey to Greece，the acquaintance of Irene offers much support for Susannah. Irene is a marginalized woman who shows positive attitude towards every inequality and hardship and has thirst for life. Irenes positive value makes deep impact on Susannahs attitude to the traumatic memories. With her guidance，Susannah gets the courage to relive her traumatic memory. She bravely retells her traumatic experience. As a good listener，Irene helps Susannah carefully analyze her trauma and encourages her bravely dominate her own life. Susannah works through her trauma finally.

3.Conclusion

As the black in American society，they suffer from great trauma of both physic and psychic. Alice Walker presents successfully the experiences of these poor trauma victims. In this novel，she puts forward two important ways to help the black women work through the traumatic memories. In one way，she creates an ideal world Mundo which gives the traumatized some hints and leads them to work through trauma. The other way is sisterhood. She encourages black women to share their feelings with their sisters. During the communication，the black women are connected to a community which offers great power for the victims to work through trauma.

References：

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[2]Walker，Alice. By the Light of My Fathers Smile [M]. New York：Random House，Inc.，1998.

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[4]张晓敏.《父亲的微笑之光》的女性主义解读[J].吉林师范大学学报（人文社会科学版），2007，2：74-77.