Abstract In Beloved, Toni Morrison gives us a vivid description of the progress of Seth’s trauma and healing。 In this paper Seth’s trauma will be analyzed mainly from two aspects：In family, Seth’s trauma comes mainly from the departure of Paul D, the memories of her mother and the deprivation of maternal love; and in society, Seth’s trauma comes mainly from the slavery system, the oppression of the patriarchal society and the infanticide event。 Seth’s self-salvation, Paul D’s love and the black community’s assistance all contribute to Seth’s healing。 94105

Key words: Beloved; Toni Morrison; trauma; healing

摘要托妮·莫里森的《宠儿》生动地描述了主人公塞斯经历创伤与治愈的过程。本文主要从家庭和社会这两个方面分析塞斯的创伤。塞斯的家庭创伤主要来源于保罗的离开，对于母亲的悲惨记忆以及对宠儿母爱的缺失。而她的社会创伤主要来源于黑人奴隶制，男权的压迫以及极端的杀婴行为。通过塞斯的自我救赎，保罗给予她的爱以及黑人社区的帮助，塞斯的创伤得以治愈。

毕业论文关键词：《宠儿》；托尼·莫里森；创伤；治愈

Contents

1。 Introduction。。1

2。 Literature Review。2

3。 A Brief Introduction to Trauma3

4。 Seth’s Trauma in Beloved。4

4。1 Seth’s familial trauma in Beloved。4

4。2 Seth’s social trauma in Beloved。6

5。 Healing of Seth’s Trauma in Beloved8

5。1 Seth’s self-salvation。8

5。2 Paul D’s love9

5。3 Black community’s assistance。10

6。 Conclusion 。10

works Cited。。12

1。 Introduction

Toni Morrison (1931--), the famous American black woman writer, has won worldwide reputation as one of the best novelists in the history of American literature。 As a black writer, Morrison mainly pays her attention to the black’s life and writes this in her novels。 “To Morrison, it is her deep rootedness in black culture and her ability to present what is vital to her people that contribute to her success as a writer。”(Hu 3) Her novels includes The Bluest Eye(1967), Sula(1977), Song of Solomon(1977), Tar Baby(1981), Beloved(11987), Jazz(1992), Paradise(1998), Love(2003)，etc。 These works reflect the black’s life in the United States as the main content。 Western Critics generally believed that Morrison inherited Ralph Ellison and James Baldwin’s black cultural tradition。 Morrison’s novel is not only familiar with the Black Folklore, Greek Mythology and the Christian Bible, but also it benefits from the western classical literature。 “Morrison, in the novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import, gives life to an essential aspect of American reality。”(Taylor-Guthrie 6) 

As the third one among her ten novels, Beloved is the best one to describe the black slave’s trauma。 Beloved has been highly praised since it was published in 1987 and won the Pulitzer price in 1988。 A。O。 Scott states in an accompanying essay,论文网

 Any other outcome would have been startling, since Morrison’s novel has inserted itself into the American canon more completely than any of its potential rivals。 With remarkable speed, Beloved has, less than twenty years after its publication, become a staple of the college literary curriculum, which is to say a classic…(Dodson 4)。

In Beloved, Morrison inquires different aspects of the issues of race, gender, culture, family, and society, which result in the intricacy of the themes。 In this novel, the heroine Seth representing most black women defeats the oppression of patriarchal society and the suffering of slavery system。 Because she did not want her daughter to repeat her suffering life Seth had no choice but to kill her daughter。 Eighteen years later, Beloved became a ghost and tortured Seth who suffered both physical and psychological trauma。 After the process of “memories loss” and “memories rebirth”, Seth cured the pains by self-salvation, Paul D’s love and the black community’s assistance。