The Examination of Pathological Symptom of Trauma in the Context of Jamaica Kincaid’s novel, “Lucy”

Abstract

Jamaica Kincaid was thewriter who tried hard to embrace the unique and unavoidable traumatic aspects of people who have lived their life in helpless and passive.When it is looked in the category of social and political senses, these negative tendencies are clearly appeared in the third world people or black people, who had a very unstable and immigrant life under colonization or slavery. Bothe of them show some traumatic symptoms which are the psychological occurrence appearing on the people who had suffered from social, cultural and political oppression of society. Confused political and social structure or fearful disaster of nature causes the phenomenon. It never easily disappearsby any unceasing effort. Once trauma is formed, it recurs repetitively and intermittently. Its unexpected intervention of their life prevents them keeping their life normal and their identity. In the novel『Lucy』, Kincaid embodied these pathological symptoms through Lucy’s life journey based on her diverse experiences in new land. With the adaptation of Herman Judith Lewis’s theory, this study will examine the fundamental reason of trauma dominating the social and politicalscheme based on Jamaica Kincaid’s novel, “Lucy”. For this research, it will analyze the symbolic objects stimulating Lucy’s trauma in the structure of society. It will be proceeded with Lucy’s rememory of her traumatic object‘daffodil’ and her mother, and the meaning of her full name ‘Lucy Josephine Potter’. Next, this paper will look into Lucy’s gradual change and growth through the purifying symbol, water and tears grounded on Sigmund Freud’s theory