Unveiling Wounds: A Trauma Theory Analysis of A Little Life and The Bell Jar

 

Sithara Sunil Namboodiripad ¹

 

¹ Integrated Ma English Language and Literature, Amrita School of Arts, Humanities, and Commerce Amrita Viswa Vidhyapeetham, Kochi Campus, India

 

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1.    A Little Life

Hanya Yanagihara’s a Little Life, first published in 2015, is a psychologically complex tear jar that examines trauma, friendship, and the struggle to overcome through the lens of reality. The novel is more than 700 pages long. Instead of employing traditional structure, the story thrusts the reader straight into the thought and emotions of college mates Jude St Francis, Willem Ragnarrson, JB Marion, and Malcome Irvine, who reside in New York City and blossom from boys into men throughout the course of the story. Initially, it appears to be a story of collaboration and striving, enduring, boundless love, and the deep-rooted psychological scars of trauma.

Central to the book is Jude St. Francis, a talented but mysterious attorney whose background is gradually revealed to be marked by unutterable abuse and suffering. Yanagihara constructs Jude’s history with measured pacing, uncovering his experiences in fragmented memories that mirror the psychological trauma often produces. The novel does not merely present Jude’s trauma as a background instead  it interlaces his past into every aspect of his current life, illustrating how pain infiltrates identity, relationships, and the capacity to trust and be loved. Jude becomes both the emotional center of the group and the novel’s pivot, his struggle highlighting the questions the text raises about the capacity of others to help, heal, or even understand another’s pain.

 The Book is notable for its emotional power and refusal to offer neat resolutions. Yanagihara’s prose is both gorgeous and grisly, swing between moments of acute tenderness and crude violence.The novel has occasioned a great deal of critical argument hailed for its emotional resonance and psychological nuance, yet also scrutinized for its depiction of brutal agony. Some critics see the book as a work of empathy and emotional realism of genius, while others accuse the end of jude’s journey of falling on excess. Aside from critical opinion, few would argue against the novel’s impact and the debates it has generated around trauma, mental illness, and the morality of literary representation.

The novel also examines the challenge of male friendship and emotional closeness with a depth of insight that is seldom achieved in modern fiction. Jude’s relationships particularly with willem blurs the old romantic or platonic dualities, depicting a fluid and intensely intimate connection based on shared history, vulnerability, and unshakeable care. Yanagihara’s representation of these relationships defies normative notions of masculinity, suggesting new modes of emotional engagement and interpersonal closeness.

A Little Life is not an easy novel to read, but one that invites emotional investment and repays it with glimpses of harsh, inedible beauty. It questions the quality of living in pain, the comfort of other people, and the unattainable potential for healing. It has established itself as one of the most contested and emotionally charged literary novels of the twenty-first century, challenging readers to face not only the existence of its characters but the moral boundaries of narrative itself.

 

2. THE BELL JAR

Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar remains among the most ghostly and enduring novels of the 20th century, a profound exploration of mental illness, identity, and social expectations within the life of a young women’s descent into psychological collapse. It was publish in 1963 under pseudonym pen name Victoria Lucas, just weeks prior Plath’s ultimate death. While the novel is often regarded as thinly veiled autobiographical history of her own struggles, it is simultaneously a coming of age story, a feminist critique, and a scorching portrait of depression.

The novel was set in the early 1950s, The Bell Jar chronicles Esther Greenwood, a brilliant and ambitious university student who receives a coveted internship at a fashion magazine in new York city. Primitively bewildered by the high life and glamour of the city, soon Esther feels lost and detached. The entrancing lights and high life of society jarringly contradict her inner despair. When she returns to Massachusetts, her feelings of loneliness deepen, and she sinks into an exhausting depression that must be treated with hospitalization and electric shock treatment.

Plath chronicles Esther’s voice with keen bluntness and caustic humour detailing the main character’s breakdown with aching precision.How the Bell Jar is so intriguing is through its  uncondensable rendering of mental illness. Instead of apotheosising or glossing the breakdown, Plath describes Esther's stagnation in sharp detail and cold candour. The "bell jar" itself becomes a metaphor, a choking cage of distorted vision, representing Esther's imprisonment both in her own mind and in the strict roles exacted by society.

The novel satirizes the narrow and repressive options for women during  postwar America. Esther's experiences echo the pressures put on young women to conform to marry, to mother, to put down ambition. Esther’s  refusal of traditional femininity and her refusal of prescribed routes mirror Plath's own anger at societal expectations. Through Esther's inner turmoil, Plath reveals the frequently invisible cost such pressures demand especially from sensitive, intelligent people who refuse to meet the standard.

Although The Bell Jar was Plath's sole novel, its influence is wide. It foretold themes of psychological realism and feminist resistance that would dominate later literature. Finally, The Bell Jar is a declaration of survival, defiance, and the ongoing struggle for self-definition. It is a book that will not hesitate to say the indescribable, speaking for the silent despair that too often underlies the façade of seemingly normal lives.

 

3. Literature Review

Trauma theory grounded in psychoanalytic thought and developed by scholars such as Cathy Caruth, Dominick LaCapra, and Judith Herman, investigates how traumatic events shape identity, memory, and narrative. Trauma theory is especially applicable to literary texts that explains psychological harm, repression, and the processes of working through or witnessing trauma. Both Margaret Atwood’s Cat’s Eye and Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner explores the long-established psychological effects of childhood trauma, presenting shattered narratives and complex character development shaped by past wounds. While contrasting in cultural context and narrative style, both novels focus on protagonists haunted by early experiences of betrayal, guilt, and loss.

Margaret Atwood's Cat's Eye presents a complex depiction of psychological trauma through Elaine Risley, a painter who returns to her childhood home in Toronto. Through Elaine's recollections, the novel gradually reveals the emotional abuse she suffered from her childhood friend Cordelia. The trauma is not recounted linearly but unfolds in disjunctive memories and disrupted timeframes—a narrative structure that reflects trauma theory’s emphasis on the fragmentation of memory and narrative after traumatic events (Caruth 4). Elaine’s trauma is not the result of a single violent incident but stems from prolonged psychological manipulation and bullying. This aligns with Judith Herman’s analysis of complex trauma, particularly in cases of sustained emotional abuse during childhood (Herman 115). Cordelia’s persistent cruelty undermines Elaine's sense of self and belonging, manifesting later in her difficulty forming trusting relationships and her eventual breakdown. Notably, Elaine suppresses these memories until her return to Toronto, where they are reactivated by environmental stimuli—a process trauma theorists identify as delayed return or belatedness.

Elaine's story is told non-linearly, frequently circling back to crucial childhood scenes and juxtaposing them with her adult experiences. This fragmentation reflects internal disorientation and supports Caruth’s claim that trauma resists full articulation or conscious integration (Caruth 5). Atwood’s symbolic use of the cat's eye marble acts as a metaphor for the preservation of trauma, encapsulating the way Elaine’s traumatic memories are both concealed and ever-present. Only through her artwork does Elaine begin to incorporate her trauma into her adult self, indicating that healing requires confrontation and narrative reconstruction. Her painting becomes a form of testimony—a key concept in trauma studies—through which she reclaims agency and reinterprets her past not merely as a site of suffering, but as a space of resilience and identity formation.

Similarly, Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner explores the psychological aftermath of childhood trauma through Amir, who is tormented by guilt after failing to intervene during the sexual assault of his friend Hassan. This crucial traumatic event becomes the ethical and emotional focus of the novel, haunting Amir into adulthood. Like Elaine in Cat’s Eye, Amir repress his trauma until he is forced to return to his homeland, triggering a conflict with the past.

Hosseini’s portrayal of trauma is apparent and interlaced with political violence, class diversions, and personal guilt. Whereas Cat’s Eye centers on home and emotional trauma, The kite runner places individual trauma in the broad context of Afghanistan’s national trauma specifically the soviet invasion and the emergence of the Taliban. Amir’s individual journey converges with collective histories of war, exile, and loss, which supports Lacapra’s contention that trauma involves both individual and collective aspects.

The narrative structure of The Kite Runner echoes trauma theory’s preoccupation with memory and transgression. Amir’s journey towards redemption is disrupted by flashbacks, dream and introspection moments. His sense of guilt is not clarified until he saves Hassan’s son, Sohrab from the same abuser and act that serves as atonement and restoration. This act echoes Herman’s recovery model, which includes remembrance, mourning, and remedial action.

The Theme of witnessing plays a crucial role in The Kite Runner. Amir’s disclosure of Sohrab’s father’s history to Sohrab is a testimony of sorts. Through Sohrab is generally quiet most trauma survivors share the silence his ultimate reaction to Amir’s nurturing marks the start of healing via relational acknowledgment. This moment highlights trauma theory’s focus on the relational and ethical aspects of witnessing, implying that healing is not merely a product of remembering, but of being heard and confirmed.

Hosseini uses symbol and metaphor to express trauma. The kite, first a symbol of innocence as a child, becomes weighed down by the trauma of Amir’s deception. Only when he runs the kite for Sohrab does it symbolize redemption and regained innocence. Such a shift attests to the idea of the trauma theorist that symbols tend to bear the double burden of pain and healing.

Although Cat’s eye and The Kite Runner differ in setting, culture, and the type of trauma depicted both novels demonstrate how childhood trauma continues to shape identity and relationships well into adulthood. Both characters undergo a process of return Elaine to Toronto Amir to Kabul suggesting that geographic and emotional return is necessary for reconciliation. In both cases trauma is not a singular event instead an ongoing negotiation between memory, identity, and narrative, the gendered nature of trauma also deserves attention. Elaine’s trauma arises from relational aggression among girls a form of violence often rendered invisible. Amir’s trauma is intensified by masculine ideals of courage honour and silence particularly within the patriarchal structure of Afghan society. These gendered lenses compound each character’s experiences of shame and repression highlighting the sociocultural mediation of trauma.

Moreover both authors underscore the role of art in processing trauma Elaine through painting Amir through storytelling. These artistic acts function as methods of testimony remembrance and ultimately healing. Trauma theory maintains that symbolic expression is essential for working through trauma and avoiding pathological repetition.

 

4. ANALYSIS

The comparative analysis of The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath and A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara is evidently lacking in recent scholarship. There are few attempts at bridging the generational, gendered, and cultural gaps in representing trauma in literature. This essay seeks to address that gap by using trauma theory to analyse both novels and investigate how trauma—particularly psychological, sexual, and institutional—is internalized, repressed, and (in a few instances) resisted by protagonists Jude and Esther. In addition, this study explores how literary form, narrative voice, and temporality impact the representation of traumatic experience, thus contributing to broader conversations about the ethics of representing pain in fiction.

The primary concern of this study is to examine how trauma is inscribed within narrative and character development across both novels. Trauma in these works is not only thematic but also formal—it disrupts linear temporality, impacts memory, and subverts coherent identity. In The Bell Jar, Esther Greenwood's descent into madness mirrors the fragmentation and alienation at the heart of post-war American womanhood while in A Little Life  Jude's non-linear history and recurrent traumatization underscore the persistent, cyclical nature of trauma. This analysis examines how each protagonist navigates or combats the consequences of trauma by means of silence, self-injury, narrative withholding, and disjointed memory. These strategies highlight the impossibility of fully narrating or resolving traumatic experience, confirming Cathy Caruth’s contention that trauma resists narrative memory integration.

This inquiry draws on a theoretical framework rooted in trauma theory, notably the writings of Cathy Caruth, Judith Herman, and Dominick Lacapra. Caruth’s idea of trauma as an unexperienced event that returns later in intrusive symptoms helps contextualize Jude’s dissociative silences and Esther’s suicidal ideation. Judith Herman’s clinical model, which outlines stages of trauma recovery safety, remembrance, and reconnection reveals why both protagonists ultimately fail to recover. Lacapra’s distinction between “acting out” and “working through” trauma enables a critical reading of how each character relates to their past. Jude remains caught in a cycle of repetition, while Esther begins a cautious reintegration of self.

Narrative theory also provides crucial insight into how form and voice facilitate or obscure trauma. The semi-autobiographical, confessional tone of The Bell Jar contrasts with polyphonic and opaque narration of A Little Life raising ethical questions about prying and authorial complicity. Both texts despite their formal difference explore a shared literary ethics the struggle to narrate the beyond words and the tension between revelation and obscuring.

According to Caruth in Unclaimed Experience:Trauma, Narrative, and History trauma is the response to an unexpected or overwhelming violent event or events that are not fully grasped as the occur but return later in repeated flashbacks nightmares and other repetitive phenomena. This inability to assimilate trauma within conventional narrative structures underpins the fractured forms of both novels. In The Bell Jar Esther’s psychological collapse is recounted linearly but with emotional disjunction. Her voice is deceptively coherent yet infused with detachment and numbness. The metaphor of the bell jar encapsulates her dissociation from reality and psychological suffocation. Though events unfold chronologically, the flattened affect and fragmented emotional response reflect repressed trauma.

In contrast, A Little Life abandons linear chronology altogether. Jude’s narrative is recursive, with traumatic episodes disclosed gradually and often out of sequence. Yanagihara enacts the repression and delayed recall central to trauma theory by withholding the full extent of Jude’s abuse until later in the novel. Jude’s compulsive self-injury, suicidal ideation, and flashbacks to abusers like Brother Luke and Dr. Traylor reinforce Caruth’s conception of trauma as non-linear and belated. These re-encounters are not remembered in a conventional sense, but relived a hallmark of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

The trauma experienced by both protagonists is inscribed on and through the body, a phenomenon that Judith Herman refers to as the “somatic dimension of trauma’’ . According to Herman trauma often bypasses language and becomes embodied in illness  pain or psychosomatic symptoms. Esther’s body becomes the battleground of her mental illness. Her suicide attempts and obsession with death reflect an effort to silence psychological pain through bodily annihilation.Her observation “I took a deep breath and listened to the old brag of my heart: I am, I am, I am” affirms existence while also revealing its fragility.

Jude’s trauma is even more viscerally embedded in his body. Repeatedly raped and abused in childhood Jude’s adulthood is dominated by chronic physical pain and compulsive self-harm. His cutting converts intolerable psychic pain into controllable physical act reinforcing Herman’s theory. Jude’s insistence on secrecy and refusal to articulate his past highlight how trauma may be too deeply rooted in the body to be communicated through language.

Esther’s account is marked by emotional detachment and a fractured identity as seen in her line “I couldn’t see the point of getting up. I had nothing to look forward to”.Her depression erodes meaning gradually in line with herman’s idea that trauma is not always triggered by a single event but can accumulate over time.The Bell Jar symbolizes this dissociation: “wherever I sat…I would be sitting under the same glass bell jar, stewing in my own sour air.” This metaphor encapsulates the claustrophobia and emotional stagnation characteristic of traumatic dissociation.

Moreover, Ester’s electro shock therapy administered without her consent highlights the way institutions can reinscribe trauma. She recalls, “something bent down and took hold of me and shook me like the end of the world”. Instead of curing her the treatment exacerbates her alienation, aligning with Herman’s argument that institutional betrayal can retraumatize victims. Esther’s collapse also stems from her rejection of restrictive gender norms her aversion to marriage and motherhood reveals the cultural pressures shaping her trauma. This aligns with Herman’s concept of “insidious trauma”, where societal forces act as silent but powerful agents of psychic damage. 

Jude’s trauma is slowly unveiled, mirroring Caruth’s theory of delayed understanding. His self-blame “it was my fault” mirrors survivors internalized guilt and the inadequacy of language in representing pain. Yanagihara’s deferred disclosure dramatizes the reader’s belated comprehension of Jude’s suffering. His repeated abuse by supposed caretakers intensifies his trauma. According to Herman, healing requires a sense of safety narrative remembrance, and relational reconnection none of which Jude attains.

Jude’s self-harm becomes a ritualized repetition of trauma. “He had become two people, the person who cut and the person who was cut.” This dissociation aligns with LaCapra’s theory of acting out a repetitive reliving without cognitive transformation. While Jude’s relationship with Willem offers temporary relief and a potential path toward “working through” the loss of Willem reactivates Jude’s trauma culminating in suicide. This bleak ending reflects the novel’s pessimism about recovery the past is not overcome but carried within the body and mind.

Trauma theory reveals how trauma fractures identity. Caruth emphasizes alienation from the self, while LaCapra distinguishes between acting out and working through trauma. Esther’s identity crisis is compounded by gender roles; her depression stems from conflicting expectations around intellect and femininity. Her declaration “The trouble was, I hated the idea of serving men in any way” expresses resistance to prescribed roles. Her trauma is both personal and systemic shaped by the constraints of 1950s America. Though the novel ends on a hopeful note her healing remains tentative.

Jude’s trauma by contrast subsumes his entire identity. Despite his professional success and loyal friendships, he views himself as fundamentally broken. He is unable to reconcile external accomplishments with internal despair. The novel dramatizes the failure to “work through” trauma showing instead a perpetual cycle of acting out. Jude’s suicide is framed as both tragic and inevitable, underlining the depth of unsolved trauma.

Both protagonists deploy silence in response to trauma. Esther’s silence is indirect expressed through minimalism and ironic detachment. She resists the medical language imposed on her and often disengages from dialogue. Jude’s silence is more extreme he refuses to speak of his past, even to those closest to him. The novel’s use of omniscient narration contrasts with jude’s personal silence reinforcing the division between lived experience and narratable memory.

Neither novel follows a linear structure.In the Bell Jar, Esther’s descent is narrated retrospectively, while A Little Life employs temporal loops and fragmentation. These formal disruptions reflect trauma’s resistance to chronological order. Esther’s voice is ironic and emotionally muted she narrates from a place of partial recovery.Jude’s voice is mediated and fractured his silence is foregrounded. These differences highlight the range of trauma’s communicability.

Finally trauma in both novels intersects with marginalization Esther’s trauma is culturally coded inflected by gender and societal expectations. Judes’s trauma, while personal, is queer-coded and shaped by class and sexual abuse. Both texts expose the complex ways identity inflects trauma and its representation. Esther’s story ends with tentative hope “There ought, I thought, to be ritual for being born twice” while Jude’s ends in despair, together the novels offer a powerful commentary on the lasting effects of trauma and the varied capacities of narrative to confront it.

 

CONFLICT OF INTERESTS

None. 

 

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

None.

 

REFERENCES

 Atwood, Margaret. Cat's Eye. Anchor Books, 1998.

 Caruth, Cathy. Unclaimed Experience: Trauma, Narrative, and History. Johns Hopkins    University Press, 1996.

Herman, Judith. Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence—From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror. Basic Books, 1992.

 Hosseini, Khaled. The Kite Runner. Riverhead Books, 2003.

LaCapra, Dominick. Writing History, Writing Trauma. Johns Hopkins UP, 2001.

Plath, Sylvia. The Bell Jar. Harper & Row, 1971.

 Yanagihara, Hanya. A Little Life. Doubleday, 2015