War Trauma

War is something that changes someone and their live so much to even year after they are still affected by what they experienced and saw. A common theme in “Soldier's Home” and The Things They Carried is going to war, which is an experience that affects people emotionally, mentally and changed their ability to connect with people.

World War II is still seen today as one of the most lethal wars in history. As technology advanced, more destructive weapons were created. In the hands of the wrong people and those forced to use them, these weapons paved the way for physical and psychological destruction. Furthermore, the mentality of individuals during this time enabled more marring upon themselves and upon other individuals. Even though what we now refer to as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD, existed before World War II, this time period brought about a higher prevalence of PTSD, as well as began to change the way this disorder was perceived by people.

People both today and back then have been traumatized by war’s brutal combat, fallen victim to cruel soldiers, and had war cause sorrow and grief to them. Through characters seeing death, characters that are soldiers, and characters that are not in combat, Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See demonstrates that war affects individuals negatively, even if they are extremely

The topic of war is hard to imagine from the perspective of one who hasn't experienced it. Literature makes it accessible for the reader to explore the themes of war. Owen and Remarque both dipcik what war was like for one who has never gone through it. Men in both All Quiet on the Western Front and “Dulce Et Decorum” experience betrayal of youth, horrors of war and feelings of camaraderie.

The psychological effects, the mentality of fighting and killing another human, and the sheer decimation of human values is what makes war atrocious. War is not only fought on the battlefield though. This book also describes the feelings of a soldier fighting his own demons that war has brought on. The battle that the soldier has with himself, is almost if not more damaging than the physical battle of war. He will never forget his experience with battle, no matter how hard he tries the memories of artillery, blood, and death cannot be erased. “I prayed like you to survive, but look at me now. It is over for us who are dead, but you must struggle, and will carry the memories all your life. People back home will wonder why you can't forget.” (Sledge). This struggle still happens to soldiers today. Sledge’s words of the struggles still captures the effects of warfare that lingers today. The other effects that war has on the men is the instability that surrounds them at every hour of the day. They are either engaged in battle having bullets and artillery fired at them, or waiting for battle just so they can be deposited back in the pressure cooker of survival. “Lying in a foxhole sweating out an enemy artillery or mortar barrage or waiting to dash across open ground under machine-gun or artillery fire defied any concept of time.”

It’s no surprise that soldiers will more-than-likely never come home the same. Those who have not served do not often think of the torment and negative consequences that the soldiers who make it out of war face. Erich Remarque was someone who was able to take the torment that he faced after his experience in World War I and shed light on the brutality of war. Remarque was able to illustrate the psychological problems that was experienced by men in battle with his best-selling novel All Quiet on the Western Front (Hunt). The symbolism used in the classic anti-war novel All Quiet on the Western Front is significant not only for showing citizens the negative attributes of war, but also the mental, physical, and emotional impact that the vicious war had on the soldiers.

War can destroy a man both in body and mind for the rest of his life. In “The Sniper,” Liam O’Flaherty suggests the horror of war not only by presenting its physical dangers, but also by showing its psychological effects. We are left to wonder which has the longer lasting effect—the visible physical scars or the ones on the inside?

The text, ‘The Things They Carried', is an excellent example which reveals how individuals are changed for the worse through their first hand experience of war. Following the lives of the men both during and after the war in a series of short stories, the impact of the war is accurately portrayed, and provides a rare insight into the guilt stricken minds of soldiers. ‘The Things They Carried' shows the impact of the war in its many forms: the suicide of an ex-soldier upon his return home; the lessening sanity of a medic as the constant death surrounds him; the trauma and guilt of all the soldiers after seeing their friends die, and feeling as if they could have saved them; and the deaths of the soldiers, the most negative impact a war

Trauma is not uncommon for victims of war, especially those who have been wounded by opposing forces. Mariatu has shared many traumatic events through her memoir, which help the reader further realize how grueling war can be. The following log shows 12 of these events, as well as the internal and

In this essay, I will discuss how Tim O’Brien’s works “The Things They Carried” and “If I Die in a Combat Zone” reveal the individual human stories that are lost in war. In “The Things They Carried” O’Brien reveals the war stories of Alpha Company and shows how human each soldier is. In “If I Die in a Combat Zone” O’Brien tells his story with clarity, little of the dreamlike quality of “Things They Carried” is in this earlier work, which uses more blunt language that doesn’t hold back. In “If I Die” O’Brien reveals his own personal journey through war and what he experienced. O’Brien’s works prove a point that men, humans fight wars, not ideas. Phil Klay’s novel “Redeployment” is another novel that attempts to humanize soldiers in war. “Redeployment” is an anthology series, each chapter attempts to let us in the head of a new character – set in Afghanistan or in the United States – that is struggling with the current troubles of war. With the help of Phil Klay’s novel I will show how O’Brien’s works illustrate and highlight each story that make a war.

In Regeneration, Pat Barker insinuates a barrier between non-combatants and British World War I soldiers as the novel delves into the trauma soldiers endure at Craiglockhart War Hospital. Sent by the government as mental patients, the soldiers discuss war memories with psychiatrist Dr. William Rivers. Siegfried Sassoon, a rising second lieutenant and a poet, has been sent to Craiglockhart as a result of his anti-war beliefs depicted in his statement, A Soldier’s Declaration. The government has diagnosed him with “shell-shock”; in actuality, Britain strives to control any citizen against the war effort. Sassoon believes that the objective of World War I is no longer relevant.

The initial betrayal that Ahmed feels stemmed from when she went to hear a talk “by the Lebanese novelist Hanan al-Shaykh (Ahmed 252). The talk promoted the idea of Arab culture and community, which completely contradicts the ideals that she was raised to believe were wrong. However, Ahmed starts to “think enviously that this was what I would like to be writing, something that would affirm my community in exile… What a fine thing… to be Arab” (Ahmed 253). She finds herself wanting to be included in being from this enriching “heritage” that created this “wealth of Arabic literature” (Ahmed 253).

To sum up, this novel narrates the journey of a soldier throughout the war in Iraq and his mind altering experience. The war represents a major downfall in his life in which he encounters many graphic scenes. Even though John describes his experiences in the war as a

This project examines Arab novels of the previous decade (2002-2012) in the context of the postcolonial theory. The research aims to highlight the political changes that occur in these novels and the point of view and narration techniques. Moreover, it will address the following key issues in postcolonial theory; politics, religious radicalization (jihad), nationalism, attitude to the West, globalization. Aftermath, the attack of 11 September the world has known Islamophobia, which made the Arab world under the telescope. The leaders of the Arab world had made the dourness appellation of their regimes to stop the Islamist and the oppositions to take the lead. Meanwhile, the Arab writers ponder to social-culture and religious conflict social injustice and socio-economic level that the Arab countries had reached. Thus, they reminisce the revolution of 1952, nationalism, their beloved leaders and the old days when the politics were choosing its representatives. The Arab writers fictionalized the true lives of people who were living in poverty. The past decade, 2002-2012, has seen considerable development of literary works.Moreover, it has encompassed many writings that are no longer envision the allegiance to the current regime at that time which was characterized by chastisement. Additionally, they relinquish to the form and the literary techniques that previous novels were used to follow. These novels encounter the disenfranchisement and disappointment to Arab

First, the thesis aims at contributing to the process of answering questions about trauma by analyzing how four Arab women writers represent trauma in fictional writing in the twenty-first century. It will highlight the tackled novels that emerge out of the anger and chaos of war, and will show that these women who write do so, because they hope, even out of despair, to intervene in the situation and thus make a difference. Second, it will give voice to the silenced and marginalized Arab women. To explain, war taking place in some Arab countries has its ugliest effect on women and girls, as they lose their sense of security, dignity, identities, countries and family members in a blink of an eye. They find themselves as refugees, prisoners or confused women. At the same time, they must survive and enable their families to survive. That's why Arab women authors can portray this disaster in an exceptional way to tell the readers about their countries' and their people's dilemma. Finally, this study aims at applying different theories and techniques on the literature. It will open the way to a detailed analysis using psychological and socio-political