Working through of Trauma in Edwidge Danticat’s The Dew Breaker

Abstract

This thesis is an inquiry into working through of trauma in Edwidge Danticat’s novel The Dew Breaker in which the characters are suffering from melancholy, nightmares, fragmentation and humiliation by the hand of “tonton-macoute”. Through each character a different traumatic experience is encountered and a different memory is revealed. Several characters like Anne, Nadine, Dany, Estina Esteme, Claude, Beatrice Saint Fort, Freda, Mariselle, Rezia and etc are doing different kinds of works in the US to live a life free from trauma of past and mourning of the loss of loved ones. In the process of healing the characters share their traumatic past with their nearest and dearest but their complete healing is not possible because of the very unconscious level of human mind and remain haunted frequently time and again throughout their life.