Choosing A Traumatic Experience

We have all seen or read about the political and social upheavals caused by war. Some may have even experienced it first-hand. Throughout history war has had negative psychological implications on those effected. However, there is no greater negative impact of war than the psychological and emotional turmoil that it causes individual soldiers.

Regardless of how a child acts towards their parents, all that matters in the end is their unconditional love for them. However, the time it takes for them to express their gratitude will depend on each child. In the novel The Namesake, Jhumpa Lahiri demonstrates this, describing the life of a young boy named Gogol and his continually progressing relationship with his mother. It demonstrates that a child is unable to view his or her parents as a human being until the parent figure experiences a traumatic event that allows the child to empathize with their parents.

Jane is a nine year old girl who has been brought in to therapy by her mother for stealing, being destructive, lying, behaving aggressively toward her younger siblings, and acting cruelly to animals. Jane has also been acting clingy and affectionate toward strangers.

I can use this article in my essay because it provides 5 separate viewpoints which will give me non-bias information. It will also be useful because it describes another alternative to PTSD other than being treated medicinally.

In this historical text, Reluctant Witnesses: Children’s Voices from the Civil War, Emmy Werner retells the events of the Civil War through the eyes of children who are male, female, black, and white. Werner worked to sift through the reactions and experiences of the young men and women who were involved in the Civil War. Each chapter articulates a different portion of the battle and the events during the Civil War. Chapter two, five, six, eight, and nine capture the eye-witness accounts from young soldiers and young women who lived through the Battle of Shiloh, the Battle of Gettysburg, the siege of Vicksburg, the burning of Atlanta, and Sherman’s march to the sea. Chapter three, four, seven, and ten depict the responses the young children had at Andersonville, during the bread riots, the triumph at Washington D.C., and the voices of the former slaves of the south. Werner thrived to increase the knowledge on the involvement of children within the Civil War. Werner’s historical picture was to present the realities children faced on and off the field of battle. Werner’s argument focused on children’s perspective of the Civil War. She supports her claim by providing diary, letter, and journal excerpts from one hundred and twenty children ages four to sixteen, by being focused on their subjective experiences of the hardships they endured and how they managed to cope with them drawing, where appropriate, parallels to the experiences of children in contemporary civil strife.

Beginning my love of reading an early age, I was never the type of child who was drawn to fictional stories. As an 8 year-old child in West Virginia, I was recognized by the local library for my love of biographies, autobiographies and recollections of world events. This love has continued throughout my adult life, desiring to read novels such as “We Were Soldiers Once…and Young” by Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore rather than watch the major motion picture “We Were Soldiers” starring Mel Gibson. Even though the motion picture received multiple awards, when reading the recollection of Mr. Moore’s accounts, the feeling of loss, distress, anxiety and fear can be felt in each word that he has written while reliving this horrendous war.

Being in war is definitely one of the most life changing events a person will ever have whether it be for the better or for the worst. Soldiers will witness events that are impossible to forget or see back at home in the states. Some soldiers may have even seen one of their best friends that they’ve known for forever get blown up into pieces right next to them, or they might even get one of their own limbs blown off of their own bodies, becoming handicapped for life. As a result of seeing something so intense like that, most soldiers are usually traumatized. In matter of fact, a great amount of soldiers are traumatized from the very beginning of being in war. It’s without a doubt difficult to deal with this but there are some ways where

Over the past few decades, the war changed everyone’s perspective. According to NCBI, 61% civilians suffer from psychological disorders caused by wars. Specifically, two books, Night and Persepolis, talks about the author experiences during the war and their struggles. Elie Wiesel, the author of Night, documents his childhood when he was maltreated by the Nazis, and Marjane Satrapi, author of Persepolis, share her experiences during the Iraq-Iran war of how it change her. War changes childhood because of near-death experiences, family departure, and witness horrific acts of violence.

This horrific story really opened my eyes because I had no absolutely idea what war was like and could not imagine what it was like for a child to endure.

War can caused many people depression, trauma, disabilities, or even long lasting injuries. The book I will be referring to is called A Long Way Gone “Ishmael Beah”. In Sierra Leone there was a civil war between the RUF (Revolutionary United Front) and government soldiers. Many people in this country were attacked and killed while teens and kids were taken to be soldiers. The book is about a boy named Ishmael Beah and his experience in the war. While looking for his family he is captured by the government to become a soldier and fight against the RUF. Ishmael was both a victim and a victimizer because he had been influenced by government soldiers to do terrible things, and aided them in the fight and killed many people.

Our modern conception of casualties includes those who have been psychologically damaged by warfare. This distinction did not exist during the Civil War. Soldiers suffering from what we would now recognize as post-traumatic stress disorder were uncatalogued and uncared for.

When researching about this assignment there were many topics I could choose, however, I was stuck in between the Korean War and the Vietnam War. In the end I chose the Vietnam war because I did not know much about the war and why it happened. When researching about this war I had learnt many things was was inspired when reading journals and looking at images of the time. It had showed me that the world we live in is one we should be proud about and be thankful for it. My stimulus idea is a diary entry of a fellow soldier and how he felt when coming home.

Many of those that suffered from this were either shot or had to undergo electric treatment. The emergence helps to inform many of those who are not aware of the variety of extreme events that millions of people battle with and how they can be diagnosed and treated. It also changed the public’s views, which included a new way of looking at violence and death; some have called it the “culture of trauma”. Before the Vietnam War, trauma was just another word used to describe your typical life-threatening events. Then after the war took place, it was then talked about more frequently with a great range of experiences. The war is still a mystery to so many, but what they do know is that it changed the political climate and turned it into a public conversation about trauma. One of the biggest things I took away was that all of the wars are damaging, but those in the Vietnam suffered the most. It was built on lies and represented crimes against humanity.

The wartime lives of the soldiers who fought in the war were in a state of mind of mixed feelings. Happiness and devastating are two adjectives that can describe the soldier’s feelings in the war because at one second they can be happy that they succeeded on a mission, but on the other hand, it can be very devastating because one of their own soldiers could have been killed during the war. Aside from physical danger losing one of your own soldiers or having your family worry about you every day and night are some negatives and unpleasant parts about fighting in a war. For example, soldiers loved ones worried each day, and hoped that they would not get a knock on their door by someone who was going to tell them that their fathers, husbands, sons, or brothers have died in the war.

In history class we are currently discussing the events and treaties of World War 1. I found this subject very interesting and the fact that many soldiers suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder piqued my curiosity. My teacher discussed how towards the end of the war soldiers portrayed symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and often fled during war which led to most of them being captured by their government and killed. I want to learn more about this topic because it is very interesting to me. I also want to learn more about why instead of finding out why the soldiers were acting out of the ordinary they just killed them. While I am researching this topic I hope to become better with my time management skills and also become an all-around better writer. This research question will help me evolve into a better world learner because it will help teach me some things about the history of our world. World War 1 occurred between a number of different countries. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder during World War 1 also not only affected Americans it affected other countries as well because of the shell shock soldiers were experiencing in the trenches. I am planning to take many different approaches when I am answering this question. I plan on researching many different first-hand accounts while also using different books and internet resources. I hope to be able to get accounts about what happened from generations of people whose families actually went