Recovering Trauma - A Study of the Identity Reconstruction Strategy of the Protagonist in Admiring Silence

Abstract

Admiring Silence is Gurna’s fifth novel, in which the protagonist has been in exile in British for nearly 20 years, traumatized by family and society and trapped in an identity dilemma, and finally reconstructs his own identity by recovering from traumas. This paper analyzes the individual trauma experienced by the protagonist and its deep-seated causes in Admiring Silence from the perspective of Trauma and Recovery Theory and explains how the protagonist recovers from trauma in the reconstruction of family and social identity. The thesis points out that the abandonment of self-values by the African diaspora in a foreign country will go no return, and that only by constantly reconstructing oneself can one truly mend one’s inner trauma.