Breath Eyes Memory Trauma

Judith Herman, M.D. with this book introduces us readers to the most impacting stories about trauma and recovery. She used real cases from her professional experience working as a Doctor. She was also a Professor and a Feminist. For the author, feminism had a great influence on her understanding of the impact that trauma has on its victims. Dr. Herman describes the traumatic experiences that distressed people suffered as atrocities.

At some time in life, a person will experience the death of a relative or lose something that was very important to him or her. After that traumatic event, will that person confront his or her pain, or will that person bury it deep within them? Both ways are possible, however, only one is effective in the long term. According to Tim O'Brien, the most effective way to heal after a traumatic experience is to share stories. In Tim’s book, The things they carried, he used the motifs of loneliness, life, and the mood of nostalgia to illustrate the importance of sharing stories during a healing process.

As Alice was going through major hell during the rape and even after the rape, it seemed as it was not taken seriously by others. Alice describes her pain, fears, and many problems that came along the way when it came for fighting for herself and the after effect of the rape. Being a rape victim was not easy, and Alice showed many signals that she needed more than just comfort, but sadly many of them failed to provide that for her.

Thesis Statement: In "The Body Remembers when the World Broke Open," the comparison of two pivotal scenes involving Rosie and Aila highlights the stark differences in their self-understanding and perspectives, revealing the complexities of their respective situations and the underlying themes of trauma, resilience, and vulnerability. In "The Body Remembers when the World Broke Open," the portrayal of Rosie and Aila's contrasting experiences and perspectives sheds light on the intricate dynamics of trauma, resilience, and vulnerability. Two scenes in particular, one where Rosie crosses paths with Aila on the street while fleeing from her violent boyfriend, and another where Aila grapples with her own insecurities in confronting difficult situations,

In Susan Farrell, the author of “Just Listen”: Witnessing Trauma in Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, mentioned “...all theorists agree that the process of recovery from trauma must involve a narrativization of traumatic event--putting a sensory images into words in order to integrate trauma into a person 's life story” (186). However, without reading Cathy Caruth’s Trauma, readers will not understand that not only integrating trauma into a narrative will help them recover but it also allows the witness apprehend their flashbacks into meaning. Flashbacks, although are taunting, has the most vivid images compared to narrated memories. For one to remember a highlight or a significant moment, one must preserve it as a flashback. In The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien convert his flashbacks into narrative memories allowing himself and readers to comprehend his experiences, but O’Brien also added flashbacks into his memories create the most graphic images for the readers.

“After a traumatic experience, the human system of self preservation seems to go into permanent alert, as if the danger might return at any moment” (Judith Lewis Herman). The psychoanalyst Lewis Herman describes how encountering agonizing pain causes individuals to become more cautious as a result. The psychoanalytic lens is based on Freudian theories and asserts that “ people’s behavior is affected by their unconscious:...the notion that human beings are motivated, even driven, by desire, fears, needs, and conflicts of which they are unaware…” (Tyson 14-15) High schools a place where tragedy are brought upon people, but their voices aren’t heard. Melinda, a high school freshman, is the protagonist in Laurie Halse Anderson’s book, Speak.

A trait that stands out in the book is the symptom of bodily memories. In Melinda’s case, during a frog dissection in her science class, she remembers the opening up and even says, “She doesn’t say a word. She is already dead. A scream starts in my gut – I can feel the cut, smell the dirt, feel the leaves in my hair.” (81). One of the other symptoms that Melinda has is self-harm. The first time that this is shown in the book, Melinda says this, “I open up a paper clip and scratch it across the inside of my left wrist. Pitiful. If a suicide attempt is a cry for help, then what is this? A whimper, a peep?” (87). Melinda also has a hard time talking to her parents about the rape to which she says, “How can I talk to them about that night? How can I start?” (72). Some victims recover from such a traumatic experience, while others don’t and live a lifetime of depression and must undergo intense therapy. In Melinda’s case, she finds redemption by talking to her parents and the guidance counselor, and putting her faith into her teachers, friends, and her art project at school. Because rape can affect anybody anywhere, everyone should be aware of the circumstances, and how to deal with it.

And lastly, the complicated issues of dealing with the sexual and physical nature of an attack on one’s self would be terrifying and change a person forever. Though each girl experiences distinctly different events, each event vividly shows the loss of innocence the girl is involved in and that it will forever change

Repression of memories is a psychological concept that has haunted modern psychology for years. Repression of memories also known as “rememory” defined by the mind pushing away traumatic or shocking experiences into a dark corner of a person’s unconscious. As this idea developed and began to be studied more thoroughly, slavery became an institution in which researchers saw promise in drawing conclusions about the dangers of repressing memories. In Toni Morrison’s novel, Beloved, the character narratives of Paul D and Sethe exemplify the dangers of repressing memories. Both disconnect from and push away unwanted emotional traumas or experiences from their past. However, this effort doesn’t pay off and their repression of memories is not successful. Through the use of symbols such as Paul D’s tobacco tin and Sethe’s scars and lost child, Morrison demonstrates how repression of the past isn’t effective and how it always comes back to haunt a person who doesn’t correctly cope with their trauma. Paul D and Sethe live unfulfilled lives as a result of repressed memories.

Although a light read, her experience is heart-breaking as she is abused at home, institutionalized, and instead of being treated for her depression, doctor’s attempt to “feminize” her with eye shadow and lipstick. She is the type of advocate that makes noise in a silence because she tells a tale that would otherwise be unknown.

Susan Griffin, a feminist writer and finalist for the Pulitzer Price in non-fiction, explores the concept of forgetting in her chapter “Our Secret”. Unlike Foer, Griffin (1992) doesn’t seem to be too much a fan of remembering, describing memory to be like “a long, half-lit tunnel, a tunnel where one is likely to encounter phantoms of a self, long concealed, no longer nourished with the force of consciousness, existing in a tortured state between life and death” (p. 258). In fact, Griffin might argue that there are several benefits to forgetting, and that the collective memories of a traumatic past should not be remembered or preserved. Failure to retrieve memories may not always be a bad thing, in fact, unwanted memories – of childhood trauma, emotional rejection, or any of life’s inevitable disappointments - have the ability to torment and mentally exhaust a person. Throughout her essay, Griffin explores the hidden shame and pains that several characters carry, herself included, and the consequences they bring. She writes of one woman’s memories of the cold war, who, as a young child, witnessed “shoes in great piles. Bones. Women’s hair, clothes, stains, a terrible odor”, all of which left her sobbing and screaming in fear (Griffin, 1992, p. 233). Another gruesome account Griffin (1992) writes of, is as

It’s all very straightforward, and biscuit-bland, especially in light of the novel’s unsettled opening, that readers is meant to understand why Sophie acts the way she does. The vivid nightmares she often have were unreal, “almost dreamy moments [where Sophie wondered] what was going to happen,” but then she would remember, “gripping the steering wheel, thinking what a baby [the] little car [was] compared to the big thing that [had] come up so suddenly behind her” (Page 118). However, the recollection is rendered more evocative, when she mentions her best friend Mai who had, “seemed to be more or less sitting up but no one in the car at that stage had seen the blood at the back of her head” (Page 120). By doing so, McCarthy has connected us with Sophie on many different levels and enhanced the potential complexity of her novel. This Big Event acts as a catalyst for Sophie’s eventual

The death of a loved one can result in a trauma where the painful experience causes a psychological scar. Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones explores the different ways in which people process grief when they lose a loved one. When young Susie Salmon is killed on her way home from school, the remaining four members of her family all deal differently with their grief. After Susie’s death, her mother, Abigail Salmon, endures the adversity of losing her daughter, her family collapsing, and accepting the loss of the life she never had the opportunity to live. Abigail uses Freud’s defence mechanisms to repress wounds, fears, her guilty desires, and to resolve conflicts, which results in her alienation and

Some might be outraged at the notion that rape is not to be considered a tragedy. It is, of course, a horrific act. One that inflicts so much damage that it can cause PTSD type triggers in survivors. Rape is a before/after moment, people who experience it begin to think of how life was before and now after the event. For instance, with the character Salima, her life before the incident included a loving family with her “good husband” (35) and

In the book Breath Eyes Memory by Edwin Dedicat, Sophie lived in a time and place where there were significant societal issues. As pertains to Haiti, genders are not seen as equal with women put under pressure to conform to the masculine idea of what a female should look and act like. In the book, a woman’s fingers symbolize her purpose in life, with each of her ten fingers representing a different role, such as loving and washing. Sophie’s aunt, Tante Atie, reflects on this stating, “The men in this area, they insist that their women are virgins and have ten fingers… Sometimes, she even wished she had six fingers on each hand so she could have two left for herself,” (Danticat 151). The social standards of women, such as Tante Atie, are causing them to conform to the masculine ideal. The roles assigned to the women revolve around caring for men’s needs, leaving them with little time and opportunities for their own wants and needs. In wishing she had two fingers to herself, Tante is showing that she feels like she doesn’t have control over her own life and can’t do as she pleases in Haiti’s civilization. In this male dominated society, women have little power, causing Tante Atie, Sophie, and other women like them to struggle to succeed and support themselves without the contribution of a male figure. In addition to women in Haiti having little power, their civilization created a hostile environment for the women of the country. During Tante Atie’s time in the