AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
for the Degree of
Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
MITA SEPTIANA
Student Number: 024214094
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
for the Degree of
Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
MITA SEPTIANA
Student Number: 024214094
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2006
JARHEAD AND SCOTT ANDERSON’S TRIAGE.
By
MITA SEPTIANA
Student Number: 024214094
Approved by
Dra . Sri Mulyani, M.A. December 15, 2006 Advisor
P. Sarwoto, S.S., M.A. December 15, 2006 Co-Advisor
JARHEAD AND SCOTT ANDERSON’S TRIAGE.
By
MITA SEPTIANA
Student Number: 024214094
Defended before the Board of Examiners on January 22, 2007
and Declared Acceptable
BOARD OF EXAMINERS
Name Signature Chairman : Dr. Francis Borgias Alip, M. Pd., M.A.
Secretary : Drs. Hirmawan Wijanarka, M.Hum. Member : Harris Hermansyah Setiajid, S.S., M.Hum.
Member : Dra. Sri Mulyani, M.A. Member : Paulus Sarwoto, S.S., M.A.
Yogyakarta, January 27,2007 Faculty of Letters
Sanata Dharma University Dean
Dr. Fr. B. Alip, M.Pd, M.A.
thesis is finished. Then, for my dearly loved parents and little brother for their endless helps and supports during the making process of the undergraduate thesis. In addition, the writer is grateful to have Dra. Sri Mulyani, M.A. and P. Sarwoto, S.S., M.A. as the advisor and co-advisor, and thus, would like to show my appreciation for their guidance. My special thanks go to my cousin and friends in the Faculty of Psychology for their time and patience when sharing their psychological knowledge with me. Last but not least, the writer would like to express her gratitude to everyone at the English Letters Department: the lecturers, the staff, and all of my friends for the helps, advices, as well as criticism that are surely significant in forming the writer to be a better individual. Once again, the writer would like to thank you very much.
Mita Septiana
ACCEPTANCE PAGE ... iii
CHAPTER II THEORETICAL REVIEW ... 5
A. Review of Related Studies... 5 ANTHONY SWOFFORD’S JARHEAD AND SCOTT ANDERSON’S TRIAGE ... 26
A. The Influence of the War’s Oppression on the Life of a War Photographer as Seen in Scott Anderson’s Triage... 27
B. The Influence of the War’s Oppression on the Life of a Marine as Seen Through Anthony Swofford’s Jarhead ... 45
C. The Similarities and Differences between the Influence of the War’s Oppression on the Life of a Marine and Those of a War Photographer as Seen in Anthony Swofford’s Jarhead And Scott Anderson’s Triage... 61
CHAPTER V CONCLUSION ... 67
BIBLIOGRAPHY ... 72
APPENDICES ... 74
of a Marine and a War Photographer: A Comparative Study of Anthony Swofford’s Jarhead and Scott Anderson’s Triage. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University.
The writer does a comparative study on Swofford’s Jarhead and Anderson’s Triage, particularly focusing on the main characters of both literary works, since they experience the cruelty of warfare although they are not of the same role. Within this comparative study, the writer attempts to figure out the influence of the war’s oppression on the life of actively fighting participant, like a marine and those who are not combatants, such as a war photographer. In addition, the comparative study is also intended to find similarities and differences between the two.
Based on the background of the comparative study mentioned earlier, there are two main objectives in doing further analysis on the main characters of both literary works who are almost similarly affected by the oppression of war. The first is to find out the influence of the war’s oppression on the life of a marine as seen through Swofford’s Jarhead, then those of a war photographer in Anderson’s Triage, and the last one is to comprehend how the oppression of the war affects the marine and the war photographer in similar or different ways.
For the comparative study on Jarhead and Triage, the writer reads both literary works for several times to get thorough understanding on the novels. After that, the writer obtains any studies, theories, and approaches that are significant for the making of this undergraduate thesis, decides a topic, and formulates two problems to be examined further in this undergraduate thesis. In doing the analysis, the writer makes use of general psychology approaches and theories since they are of almost related psychological cases. Furthermore, because Jarhead portrays the life of a military individual, the writer applies military psychology theory to discover if the influence of the war’s oppression on the life of a marine and a war photographer is similar to or different from each other.
By doing deeper comparative study, the writer is able to acknowledge that for a non-combatant who has experienced the malicious warfare, like Mark, Swofford is also prone to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) by showing typical indications and reactions to it, such as being in re-experiencing, avoidance, and arousal states, also reactions that cover feelings, behavior, and physical effects. Whereas for Swofford as a marine, even though there is no clear statement if he suffers from PTSD, he shares almost similar effects. He cannot avoid suffering the same states and depicting the reactions as well. Being a marine, the effects on him are quite different from Mark or other civilians in the warfare. He is likely to develop some psychiatric casualties, such as fatigue cases, confusional states, conversion hysteria, anxiety states, obsessional and compulsive states and the most distinguished one referred as Ganzer syndrome.
Swofford’s Jarhead and Scott Anderson’s Triage. Yogyakarta: Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma.
Penulis melakukan studi banding pada Jarhead karya Swofford dan Triage karya Anderson, memfokuskan pada tokoh utama dalam kedua karya sastra karena keduanya memiliki persamaan, yaitu pernah berhadapan langsung dengan kekejaman perang walaupun peranan mereka berbeda satu sama lain. Dengan melakukan studi banding ini, penulis berusaha untuk mengetahui pengaruh perang dalam kehidupan individu yang secara aktif berperang, seperti seorang tentara dan mereka yang bukan pejuang, seperti fotografer perang. Selain itu, studi banding ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui persamaan dan perbedaan di antara keduanya.
Berdasarkan pada latar belakang studi banding yang telah disebutkan sebelumnya, ada dua tujuan utama dalam melakukan analisis lebih jauh pada tokoh utama kedua karya sastra, di mana mereka terkena pengaruh perang yang tidak jauh berbeda. Pertama-tama, tujuan utama dari analisis yang mendalam ini adalah untuk megetahui pengaruh perang di kehidupan seorang tentara dalam Jarhead juga di kehidupan seorang fotografer perang dalam Triage, dan terakhir untuk memperoleh pengertian tentang bagaimana pengaruh perang dalam kehidupan keduanya dapat sama sekaligus berbeda.
Dalam melakukan studi banding pada Jarhead dan Triage, penulis berulang kali membaca kedua karya sastra agar dapat memperoleh pengertian yang mendalam tentang kedua novel tersebut. Selanjutnya, penulis mengumpulkan studi, teori, maupun pendekatan yang berguna dalam pembuatan skripsi ini, menentukan sebuah topik, dan merumuskan dua permasalahan untuk diteliti lebih lanjut. Dalam melakukan analisa, penulis menerapkan teori psikologi umum karena keduanya menunjukkan kasus psikologis yang hampir serupa. Lebih lanjut, karena Jarhead meggambarkan kehidupan individu dalam militer, penulis menerapkan teori militer untuk mengetahui apakah pengaruh perang dalam kehidupan tentara serupa atau berbeda dari fotografer perang.
Setelah melakukan analisis, penulis mampu menyatakan bahwa seseorang yang bukan pejuang tetapi pernah memiliki pengalaman dengan kekejaman perang seperti Mark, juga cenderung mengalami tekanan pasca kejadian traumatik (PTSD). Ia menunjukkan gejala maupun reaksi khas, seperti dalam keadaan re-experiencing dan avoidance, juga reaksi yang berhubungan dengan perasaan, tingkah laku, dan pengaruh fisik. Sedangkan Swofford sebagai seorang tentara, ia juga terkena pengaruh yang tidak jauh berbeda, seperti mengalami keadaan dan bereaksi yang serupa dengan Mark. Seperti individu lain dalam militer, ia menunjukkan pengaruh yang berbeda dari Mark atau warga sipil lainnya dalam perang, yaitu pengaruh kejiwaan, misal kelelahan, kebingungan, kecenderungan serupa dengan gangguan syaraf, kecemasan, terobsesi secara berlebihan, dan satu ciri khas, yaitu Ganzer syndrome.
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
Literary works can be perceived as means of communication between the authors and the readers. Through literary works, the authors are able to communicate their idea, feeling, thought, argument, or opinion toward certain issues or happenings in society based on their own or others’ experiences.
A work of art is essentially the internal made external, resulting from a creative process operating under the impulse of feeling, and embodying the combined product of the poet’s perceptions, thoughts, and feelings. The primary source and subject matter of a poem, therefore, are the attributes and actions of the poet’s own mind; or if aspects of the external world, then these only as they are converted from fact to poetry by the feelings and operations of the poet’s mind (Abrams, 1979:22).
Based on the field of study that is related to physical as well as mental influence of certain disastrous happening, like war for instance, we are able to psychologically analyze that the influence of the war’s oppression on the life of those who experience it can cause different effects and reactions depend on how far individuals involve themselves in the context of wars. Some of the people actively take part in the wars because they are soldiers fighting for their country and protecting the innocent people from the enemies’ attack. The rest is usually simply divided into two groups, namely those who are active not in a way of fighting, but because of certain jobs require them so, and those who are nothing but simply ordinary people trapped in the war situation.
On the other hand, Scott Anderson’s Triage is analyzed as a kind of “foil” for Jarhead in a way it depicts the influence of the war’s oppression on the life of
semi-active war participant. In Triage, the main character is a war photographer who, like marines, also faces the reality of war discourse, but he positions himself differently from the marines. He is active in taking photographs of any interesting and valuable moments during the war discourse but it is a must for him to stay neutral, without supporting any sides. As a war photographer, he has seen what marines had seen even often treated no different from marines or enemies.
B. Problem Formulation
In analyzing the influence of the war’s oppression on the life of a marine and a war photographer as seen in Anthony Swofford’s Jarhead and Scott Anderson’s Triage, there are two questions formulated as problems to be analyzed further,
namely:
1. What is the influence of the war’s oppression on the life of a marine as seen through Anthony Swofford’s Jarhead and on the life of a war photographer in Scott Anderson’s Triage?
2. How is the influence of the war’s oppression on the life of a marine similar to or different from the influence on a war photographer’s life?
C. Objectives of the Study
A comparative study on Anthony Swofford’s Jarhead and Scott Anderson’s Triage will be made in order to analyze the influence of the war’s oppression on
the life of a marine and a war photographer. Since the study is a comparative one, this undergraduate thesis will cover two main objectives, namely to find out the influence of the war’s oppression on the life of a marine as seen through Anthony Swofford’s Jarhead and on the life of a war photographer in Scott Anderson’s Triage and finally to understand how the influence of the war’s oppression on the
CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL REVIEW
A. Review of Related Studies
Since Anthony Swofford’s Jarhead and Scott Anderson’s Triage, looking through the year of the writing and first publication, can be included as 20th century literary works, there are not many studies done on both literary works. However, there are some reviews and studies found on the Internet that commented on Jarhead and Triage.
Review found on Anderson’s Triage was by Valerie Sutherland, entitled ”Scott Anderson’s Triage Looks at The Paradoxes and The Traumas of War.” As it is suggested by the title, Sutherland focuses the review on discussing essential points on Triage which depict the common effects of the warfare and paradoxes created by the warfare itself.
Commenting on the paradoxes of war discourse, Sutherland states that the central characters on Triage, Mark, Dr. Morales, and Dr. Talzani, who are all categorized as “peripheral participants” in the war discourse, share similar burden. This burden is not a matter of clash between armies or ideologies, but it is related to their responsibilities and their survivor status.
A pivotal image in Triage is the paradox of the healer who kills. Dr Talzani in Kurdistan and Dr Morales in Spain both carry guns and use them to hasten the end for ‘incurables.’
By framing the story of Mark Walsh's psychological collapse and journey back to health between these two occurrences, author Scott Anderson has focused his discourse on the casualties of war on the related concepts of survival and responsibility. Viewed from the perspective of the peripheral
dimension. For Morales, Talzani and Mark, the experience of war is not a conflict between ideologies or empires or even armies''. For them it has become a confrontation with their own individual sense of responsibility. Each has to delve into his conscience and find the strength to hasten the death of people damaged beyond repair. The two doctors understand their actions as morally responsible ones, albeit marked by guesswork as to who should be chosen to die. Talzani is practicing euthanasia, Morales is protecting the community
(http://www.education.theage.com.au/pagedetail.asp?intpageid=97&strs ection=students&intsectionid=3).
Furthermore, she explains about war’s oppression traumas undergone by the main character on Triage, Mark. In her opinion, his traumas during a tedious healing process of post-traumatic stress disorder still have connection with the sense of responsibility for being the sole survivor, and later this might create denial of the truth, sense of alienation, and also irrational obsession. All of these, for instance, are shown by Mark’s condition after being several times “involved” in war discourse. Witnessing his close friend dying horribly and then finally dies, he unconsciously starts to create seemingly convincing situation in which his friend is still alive and would come home soon. Mark even worsens his trauma not only by denying the truth, but he also becoming obsessed with Perez’s problem, which has nothing to do with his own business. By shifting his attention to another unrelated problem, he hopes that it would act as a kind of payment for his denial of the horrible and unbearable facts.
‘what happened to him’ Mark has denied Diane this knowledge about Colin and tries to compensate through finding the truth about ‘the butcher of Olia’
(http://www.education.theage.com.au/pagedetail.asp?intpageid=97&strs ection=students&intsectionid=3).
Since the thesis is a comparative one, besides review on Triage, the writer also puts some reviews on Jarhead into use. One of the reviews on Jarhead, for instance, is by Sam Williamson. In general, he comments more on Swofford’s failure in depicting positive sides of the U.S. Marines. The memoir might depict true portrayal of the marines’ everyday situation during the course of war, but logically Jarhead is exaggeratedly written. For instance, the simple scene about Swofford and his weapon.
Some of this is due to some obvious exaggerations that Swofford worked into his stories, all of which seemed unnecessary. For example, at one point Swofford says that he's "been in the Marine Corps less than two years, and I've probably performed this one act, assembling the M16, more than ten thousand times." But that can't be true; it would mean that he assembled his M16 over 15 times every single day of those two years. Even averaging breaking down a weapon one time a day would seem high; though there would doubtless be days where a Marine broke down his weapon multiple times, there would also be many days where the weapons sat in the armory unused
(http://writ.news.findlaw.com/books/reviews/20030418_williamson.html). Almost similar tone to those of Williamson’s is presented by Mick LaSalle, a Chronicle movie critic on the movie based on Swofford’s memoir, Jarhead,
Swofford exemplifies the ring of truth by portraying a disappointed sniper who is not allowed to satisfy his lust to kill just because the order has changed. In addition to that, there is another encouraging point about Jarhead.
The great virtue of "Jarhead," which some will mistake as a fault, is that it doesn't try to make sense of it. Neither does it try to make something senseless of it. The invigorating thing about "Jarhead" is it makes us encounter the truth in its undigested form (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi).
What he means of “the truth in its undigested form” here is Swofford, in fact, is trying to illustrate that those who join the Marines have their yearn for killing since the very first time they are pinched into military life. Therefore, “Their blood lust is not a matter of swagger, not a matter of hardening themselves for the inevitable unpleasantness” (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi). In short, based on LaSalle’s review of Jarhead, it is likely to say that Jarhead is lack of heroic aspects generally shown by Marines. Instead, it is only “A soldier's story that's full of blood and guts” (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi).
movies have been depicted so far. Therefore, the movie ultimately degrades the intricacies of the original text.
And while every filmmaker has the right to shape (and sometimes reshape) the text he's adapting, the difference between Swofford's account of the assault and Mendes' dramatization of it encapsulates everything that's specious about the movie "Jarhead." Swofford's book is both funnier and more horrifying than the movie Mendes has made from it, and he makes no bones about how messed up (by civilian standards, at least), the U.S. Marine Corps is. But his book also addresses a world of greater complexities, and at the very least, it's ultimately about soldiers -- in other words, people. Mendes doesn't care about people -- he's too busy making his art. And with "Jarhead" he pulls off, effortlessly, what so many pro- and antiwar individuals since Vietnam have tried so conscientiously to avoid: His movie is antiwar and anti-soldier
(http://dir.salon.com/story/ent/movies/review/2005/11/04/jarhead/index.ht ml?CP=IMD&DN=110).
Besides commenting on the movie that is, in her opinion, only pleasing the director’s personal aim, she also takes her stance on the more interesting points Swofford tries to portray on his book, such as some positive notions about being a marine and involved in military life that might not be consciously realized.
We can cluck cluck over the U.S. war machine, professing to feel the pain of the poor innocents forced to participate in such cruelty, without ever acknowledging that the guys who join that "war machine" often get something more from it than just a cruel induction into real manhood. As Swofford points out in his book, the military offers a kind of secure domesticity, and there's certainly a sense of community
(http://dir.salon.com/story/ent/movies/review/2005/11/04/jarhead/index.ht ml?CP=IMD&DN=110).
Mendes means to suggest, I think, that the flawed, reckless Marines we've gotten to know in his movie are exactly the people we've sent out to fight our current war: They may be brave kids, doing their duty, but they're really not very smart, and it's our government's fault for sending them out that way
(http://dir.salon.com/story/ent/movies/review/2005/11/04/jarhead/index.ht ml?CP=IMD&DN=110).
From many reviews on Jarhead mentioned earlier, all of them discuss the crucial matter in Jarhead only from the surface. None of them relates his review with psycological aspect which is actually also significant to be discussed. Among those only-external reviews on Jarhead, there is a review done by William Arnold, a Seattle Post intelligencer movie critic that is related to psychological aspect, entitled “'Jarhead' Sends A Powerful Message about War's Psychological Toll”. In his review, he believes that Jarhead is unlike most of famous war movies ever made. Within its limitation, Jarhead can be inferred as a non-political movie. Being a non-political one, Jarhead is more focusing on the human psychological aspect, especially in the term of war discourse.
For a movie that deals so boldly with the roots of our current, controversial war in Iraq, it's also surprisingly apolitical. It keeps its point of view narrow, its characters clueless and any moral reservations close to its vest. And yet it's a powerful experience that measures the human cost of its war -- and all war, really -- less in terms of battlefield statistics than in the subtle, degenerative psychological effect that it sends rippling through a generation and a society
(http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/movies/247017_jarhead04q.html).
But the sum of the movie is devastating. One takes out of it a sense that the human cost of our endless adventure in Iraq is going to be incalculable, perhaps catastrophic -- a psychological time bomb that will be exploding for decades to come
(http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/movies/247017_jarhead04q.html).
Referred to all reviews of related studies done on Jarhead and Triage mentioned before, most of them only external ones, the writer decides to do further analysis on the psychological effects seen in characters in both novels who are involved in the war discourse. The analysis is intended to support the comparative study on the influence of the war’s oppression on the life of a marine and a war photographer in Jarhead and Triage.
B. Review of Related Theories
1. PTSD Symptoms
In doing the analysis on the influence of the war’s oppression on the life of a marine and a war photographer in Anthony Swofford’s Jarhead and Scott Anderson’s Triage. since the study is aimed at analyzing certain characteristic of individual’s mental or behavioral, the writer applies theories on psychology, focusing on post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD. First, we have to know what post-trauma stress means.
At its simplest it can be defined as ‘the normal reactions of normal people to events that for them are unusual or abnormal (Parkinson, 2000:29).
generally divided into three kinds, which are re-experiencing, avoidance, and arousal (Parkinson, 2000:52-62).
a. Re-experiencing
What it means by re-experiencing here is that any feeling or emotion felt not only during the time of traumatic event or shortly afterwards, but it is common to be felt again after years of the experience. The sensational feeling or emotion might be varied from only serene to intensely disturbing one, and it usually comes when we are not prepared to anticipate it. The sense of re-experiencing can be unconsciously jumped out of the repressed mind because of both external and internal cause. As a result, this thing can directly cause another common reaction to follow.
These feelings can be ‘triggered’ by sights (TV, video, media, news items, movies, photographs, people, talking about it), and by sounds, smells, tastes, and touch… They can be extremely frightening, and the fear of losing control or going crazy is not unusual… This can lead people to practice avoidance or isolation (Parkinson, 2000:53).
It is much more understandable that certain external cause contributes to the sense of re-experiencing certain traumatic event, but it is more complicated when it comes to our own internal feeling or emotion. Yet, it is possible to occur.
b. Avoidance
Being traumatized by certain horrible experience will definitely forces us to be cautious not to be trapped in the same situation again. One simple way that most people do is detaching themselves as far as possible from potential remembrances.
Similarly, when we have experienced a traumatic incident, we may try to avoid anything that reminds us of the circumstances, such as places, people, pictures, or other things that might bring the memories and feelings back into our minds (Parkinson, 2000:56).
Avoidance is fairly acceptable to both major and minor incidents, but actually it tends to build other complicated forms that are related to one another, such as continuously denying the fact and unconsciously drawing self from our surrounding.
A common response to trauma is denial. This response is actually a form of avoidance, especially among men… I might join a support group or club and cling to something, to someone, to a memory…Through this experience I am at risk of becoming more isolated and lonely…(Parkinson, 2000:56-59).
c. Arousal
Besides feeling the sense of re-experiencing and practicing avoidance, any human being who has been experiencing traumatic event might be awakened by arrangement of unpredicted responses.
An overstimulated sense of awareness and arousal can lead to an incapacity to cope with normal events and experiences and a retreat into isolation. There can be outburst of anger between bouts of silence and a withdrawal into self. (Parkinson, 2000:61)
Interestingly, there is a unique characteristic that makes arousal different from other PTSD symptoms, which is called replacement behavior.
Another sign of this increased sense of arousal can be the desire to do things on impulse without knowing why… Some people will spend vast sums of money on things they don’t need, change their lifestyle or relationships and do things they have never done before (Parkinson, 2000:61).
2. PTSD Reactions
After knowing the kind of PTSD symptoms, there are several common reactions that are often found in the case of PTSD. These common reactions covered feelings, behavior, and physical effects of the person traumatized by certain incident (Parkinson, 2000:64-71).
a. Feelings
There are many and various emotions emerged after certain traumatic happening, such sense of pointlessness and increase of anxiety and vulnerability. A person who is traumatized usually shows that there is no point of living his life back to normal. Of course, it would intensify sadness or creating more excessive fear and panic that would even lead us to “a descent into apathy and inactivity” (Parkinson, 2000:64).
People can see images of the event flashing into their minds, or these can be projected outside… and even experience smells and sounds that remind them of the event… The images can be disturbing because sometimes they seem to bear no relation to what we have been through (Parkinson, 2000:64).
As it is stated before, the flashing images can be disturbing. Being realized or not, those disturbing images cannot be repressed forever into the depth of our minds. There are times when they need to emerge in the forms of nightmares and sleep disturbances.
If I have intrusive thoughts and images, and especially if I refuse to acknowledge how I really feel, then these thoughts can also be experienced in dreams and nightmares (Parkinson, 2000:65).
Another noticeable reaction related to feeling and emotion is the mixture of uncertain feelings. This mixture of uncertain feeling usually involved feeling of anger, blame, guilt, regret, shame, and bitterness. These feelings are unavoidable especially when we survive while others do not from a traumatic incident. It is common to be referred as survivor guilt. Having developed sense of survivor guilt, we are likely to segregate ourselves from any remembrance or anything that
might awaken the guilt itself. As a result of the detachment, loneliness and social isolation are likely to follow.
These feelings may cause people to avoid those who have suffered a loss, behavior for which they feel even more intense guilt. Some people retreat into social isolation and loneliness (Parkinson, 2000:67).
Finally, there is also no guilt in being afraid that the traumatic incident might take place again later regardless of the chance of happening as long as it does not bother our normal life.
There is nothing wrong even with this unless it becomes incapacitating or so disturbing we can no longer cope with it (Parkinson, 2000:68). b. Behavior
Not only do our feelings react to traumatized event, but we also react by showing some typical behavior that might be contradictory to our usual behavior. For instance, if making decision is a thing to be proud of from us, traumatic happening is likely to torn it apart.
When you have been through a traumatic experience the simple and ordinary things of life pale when compared with what has been experienced… The effect on people who were once decisive and direct may be that they now find it hard to make decisions or know what to do (Parkinson, 2000:69).
In addition to difficulty in making decisions, people traumatized by certain incident are often found to be difficult to focus on things and thus, they are easily annoyed - get angry and sometimes tend to be violence for no apparent reason.
Some find it difficult to concentrate for any length of time and become irritable. An inability to concentrate can lead to more irritability and anger…There may even be violence… (Parkinson, 2000:69).
c. Physical Effects
People who have been through a certain incident might get injured by the event, be it major or only minor injuries. The wounds might be apparent, in this case real ones, or only as creation of a hypochondriac.
A traumatic event may trigger illnesses of a nonspecific nature, such as headaches, stomachaches, pains or tightness in the chest and various pains in other parts of the body… The symptoms may be real or imagined… (Parkinson, 2000:70).
traumatic incident that they are experiencing what they called listlessness while the rests become hyperactive and full of excitement whether it is useful or not.
Some complain of never having any energy, of being tired all the time…The opposite of listlessness can occur. Some become greatly excited and hyperactive, often with no real aim in life, but may become involved in… anything that takes their energy or activity (Parkinson, 2000:71).
3. Psychiatric Casualties (based on Military Psychology)
After knowing the definition, typical characteristics, and symptoms of PTSD, we will use another theory in psychology that is usually applied to the military life. Therefore, the psychological study related to military life is often referred as military psychology. In military psychology, it is common for those involved in
military life to suffer from psychiatric casualties. Even, the opportunity of undergoing those casualties is likely to be bigger than to be executed by our foes.
Richard Gabriel tells us that in every war … the chances of becoming a psychiatric casualty – of being debilitated for some period of time as a consequence of the stresses of military life – were greater than the chances of being killed by enemy fire (Grossman, 1995:43).
Additionally, still quoting from Gabriel’s No More Heroes, Grossman explains the various visible expressions shown by these common casualties most soldiers suffer from, such as fatigue cases, confusional states, conversion hysteria, anxiety states, obsessional and compulsive states, and character disorders (Grossman, 1995:45-48).
a. Fatigue Cases
exhaustion or weariness that sooner or later will affect to the degeneration of their performance in their daily military life.
Increasingly sociable and overly irritable, the soldier loses interest in all activities with comrades and seeks to avoid any responsibility or activity involving physical or mental efforts… There will also be such somatic symptoms as hypersensitivity to sound, increased sweating, and palpitations (Grossman, 1995:45).
b. Confusional States
The initial symptoms known as fatigue cases will create more complex problem that makes soldiers gradually no longer take hold of the logical truth or reality as a form of their incapability to adjust with the surroundings.
Usually, the soldier no longer knows who he is or where he is. Unable to deal with his environment, he has mentally removed himself from it. Symptoms include delirium, psychotic dissociation, and manic-depressive mood swings (Grossman, 1995:45).
In psychological study, typical symptoms mentioned before are not impossible to develop Ganzer syndrome that we often found in daily military life regardless of the danger surrounds and is waiting for them.
One often noted response is Ganzer syndrome, in which the soldier will begin to make jokes, act silly, and otherwise try to ward off the horror with humor and the ridiculous (Grossman, 1995:45).
c. Conversion Hysteria
This alteration does not only take place during conflict but it also likely to continue years after the incident happened. It also important to acknowledge that this conversion hysteria can lead to some sudden and uncontrolled contraction of muscles.
convulsive attacks in which the soldier rolls into the fetal position and begins to shake violently (Grossman, 1995:46).
d. Anxiety States
If weariness felt by the soldier reaches its peak, it is common that the soldier becomes difficult to focus on things, excessively frightened, obsessed with fatality, and endure some mental and physical illnesses. Besides that, the soldier is also potential to suffer from PTSD.
These states are characterized by feelings of total weariness and tenseness… degenerating into an inability to concentrate... Ultimately the soldier becomes obsessed with death and the fear… Frequently anxiety is accompanied by shortness of breath, weakness, pain, blurred vision, giddiness, vasomotor abnormalities, and fainting (Grossman, 1995:47).
e. Obsessional and Compulsive States
These states are actually almost similar to those of conversion hysteria cases except that a person who experience this state is aware of “the morbid nature of his symptoms and that his fears are at their root” (Grossman, 1995:47), although some physical expressions shown are beyond our control. These will cause further escape mechanism.
Even so, his tremors, palpitations, stammers, tics, and so on cannot be controlled. Eventually the soldier is likely to take refuge in some type of hysterical reaction that allows him to escape physic responsibility for his physical symptoms (Grossman, 1995:47).
f. Character Disorder
instance, he might turn into a paranoid, schizophrenic, epileptic, and eventually becomes a psychotic victim.
Character disorders include obsessional trait in which the soldier becomes fixated on certain actions or things; paranoid trends accompanied by irascibility, depression, and anxiety… schizoid trends leading to hypersensitivity and isolation; epileptoid…accompanied by periodic rages…and finally degeneration into a psychotic personality (Grossman, 1995:48).
C. Theoretical Framework
Like what has been explained earlier, the writer decided to do further study on the influence of the war’s oppression on the life of a marine and a war photographer as seen in Anthony Swofford’s Jarhead and Scott Anderson’s Triage. In doing further study on the topic, the writer considers psychological
Even though the symptoms and reactions are of no difference whether in active or peripheral individual who is exposed to traumatic happening, the explanation for those cases is slightly different when we refer to military individual as an active participant. Considering the difference, the writer also puts theories on another branch of psychology known as military psychology into use in doing further analysis on the study of the influence of the war’s oppression, especially on the life of a marine in Swofford’s Jarhead. The application of military psychology study gives significant contribution to this undergraduate thesis in a way it reveals thorough understanding on how the oppression of war seriously affects military individual physically and mentally.
CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY
A. Object of the Study
The literary work to be analyzed in this undergraduate thesis is Anthony Swofford’s autobiography, especially focusing on his own experience as a U.S. Marine scout/sniper during the First Gulf War, entitled Jarhead. The writer chooses the recent edition of Jarhead published by Pocket Books of USA in October 2005. In addition, the writer also makes use of the 1999 publication of Scott Anderson’s Triage by Pan Books in Great Britain because it gives account for the comparative study in this undergraduate thesis.
In spite of endless controversies on Jarhead, British movie director, Sam Mendes chose to visualize it into a movie, starring many talented actors, such as Jake Gyllenhaal, Peter Sarsgaard, Lucas Black, Chris Cooper, and Jamie Foxx. The successfulness in making Jarhead as a new genre of war movie brings it to be worth of several cinematic award nominations for Art Directors Guild, Satellite Awards, and Visual Effects Society Awards (http://www.imdb.com/).
Jarhead presents a U.S. marine’s struggle, mentally as well as physically, to
B. Approach of the Study
In doing the comparative study between Anthony Swofford’s Jarhead and Scott Anderson’s Triage, particularly focusing on the analysis of the influence of the war’s oppression on the life of a marine and a war photographer, the writer applies psychological approach. The writer uses the application of psychological approach because this undergraduate thesis is meant to analyze literary works through the lens of psychology.
Referring to Guerin’s A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature, the psychological approach in studying literature focuses on either the psychological motivations of the characters in the literary works or might be of the authors. In analyzing the influence of the war’s oppression on the life of a marine and a war photographer as seen in Swofford’s Jarhead and Anderson’s Triage, the writer looks more at the psychological motivations of the main characters who are considered to be having almost similar cases which is psychologically influenced by the wars’ oppression. Furthermore, in order to be specific, the writer puts Jungian approach into use. Unlike Freudian approach, Jungian approach
neurosis is likely to occur. According to Merriam Webster’s 11th Collegiate
Dictionary, neurosis is explained as follow.
A mental and emotional disorder that affects only part of the personality, is accompanied by a less distorted perception of reality than in a psychosis, does not result in disturbance of the use of language, and is accompanied by various physical, physiological, and mental disturbances (as visceral symptoms, anxieties, or phobias) (Webster, 2004:834).
As seen in both literary works, the influence of the war’s oppression on the life of a marine and a war photographer is closely related to the process of individuation and thus account for further and thorough analysis in this undergraduate thesis.
C. Method of the Study
In doing the comparative study on the influence of the war’s oppression on the life of a marine and a war photographer as seen in Anthony Swofford’s Jarhead and Scott Anderson’s Triage, the writer did a library research and to complete the the data needed in the analysis, the writer also made use of Internet research. Since the study is not a field research, the writer used Anthony Swofford’s Jarhead and Scott Anderson’s Triage as primary texts. In addition to those
primary texts, Guerin’s A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature, Parkinson’s Post-Trauma Stress, and Grossman’s On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society were also put into use, especially in
Arnold’s “'Jarhead' Sends A Powerful Message about War's Psychological Toll”, and other related reviews to support the analysis as well as to differ the study from common studies thathave been done before.
In doing the analysis, the writer began with reading Swofford’s Jarhead and Anderson’s Triage to get the main or general idea of both literary works. The writer did the reading process for several times in order to deepen the understanding about the analyzed literary works. After that, the writer obtained related studies, approaches, and theories needed to support the analysis, studied the data thoroughly, and considered an appropriate topic for the undergraduate thesis. The next step was that the writer created two questions as the problem formulations to be analyzed further in the analysis and applied the approaches as well as theories gained to answer the problem formulations. In applying the significant approaches and theories, firstly, the writer related the general psychological approaches and theories on psychology to both literary works because they were of almost similar psychological cases. Then, for the analysis on Jarhead, the writer focused more on the theory of military psychology since the
CHAPTER IV
THE INFLUENCE OF THE WAR’S OPPRESSION ON THE LIFE OF A
MARINE AND A WAR PHOTOGRAPHER: A COMPARATIVE STUDY
OF ANTHONY SWOFFORD’S JARHEAD AND SCOTT ANDERSON’S
TRIAGE
Reading Jarhead and Triage, we could generally perceive that both literary works presented similar common issue, which is the influence of certain happenings on the life of the people who have undergone them, in this case the experience for being affected psychologically by the oppression of war. Basically, the oppression of war could be felt not only by those who are actively participate in it, but those who are peripheral participants or just simply present at the wrong place and time might undergo similar problems. Because of that reason, the writer will make thorough analysis to answer the two problems formulations stated earlier in the first chapter. The analysis will be divided into three subchapters. In the first subchapter, the writer will discuss the influence of the war’s oppression on the life of a war photographer as seen in Scott Anderson’s Triage. For the second subchapter, the writer will do the analysis on the influence
A. The Influence of the War’s Oppression on the Life of a War
Photographer as Seen in Scott Anderson’s Triage
One of the main characters in Anderson’s Triage, Mark Walsh, is an American war photographer who has witnessed the cruelty of wars, including its participants and victims, during his duty. One of the most traumatic warfare he has ever experienced is being in the middle of battle life in Kurdistan, where he begins forcefully accustomed with the so-called “ritual” of triage. Being wounded and formerly fell unconscious, he has no idea at all when he suddenly finds himself in a room among other wounded men.
A long barrow room lit by kerosene lanterns. A Pesh Merga barracks with men lying in army cots… The aisle between the rows crowded with men sitting cross-legged, leaning their backs on the cot frames (1999:14).
Although Mark does not suffer badly from physical injuries and does not have to be killed to “end his suffering”, his psychological condition is worsened by continuous indications leading to post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD that has its root on the oppression of war he faced earlier where he also captured horrific sights and made his living out of it. From reading Scott Anderson’s Triage, we are able to perceive that one of the main characters, Mark Walsh, is suffering from PTSD from Joaquin’s remark after he asks Mark to tell him some war stories he had been through.
Actually, without Joaquin’s remark about a common consequence of the oppression of war on Mark, from the beginning, we are capable of fact that he suffers from it because he noticeably signifies some typical PTSD symptoms.
Mark starts to show typical indications leading to PTSD when he is moved to a ward where not-seriously-wounded men rest until they are fully recovered. Although he does not directly witness it, he is in the state of re-experiencing the deadly part of Kurdish doctor’s triage, the killing of the incurables, from the familiar sounds he hears. His reaction to the sounds is serene, but it causes mental pang on him. It is shown from his reluctance to open his eyes even though he is not able to witness the triage process. Later on, reflexively, other re-experiencing states give account for greater contribution to the endurance of PTSD.
In late afternoon, he heard the sound rise within the cave… The prayers of the men in recovery grew louder. Mark closed his eyes. The report of a gunshot. Mark twitched but kept his eyes shut. Four or five minutes later, another shot. Then another. Another. After the last one, Mark opened his eyes and stared into the reed roof (1999:19-20).
reality then unconsciously performing self-withdrawal from his usual surroundings.
There are several moments when Mark’s thought keeps on flashing back to past events during his stay in Kurdistan, mostly those that emotionally stir him up. For instance, when in one Saturday morning, Mark and Elena are going to the Cloisters. After taking pleasure in enjoying the inside of Cloisters, Elena comes to Mark who is standing alone at the promontory near Hudson River and asks him why he suddenly decides not to take the Times job then goes to Burma.
I’m not going to do the Burma trip. I’m telling Amy to pull my name. Are you serious? But you’ve always talked about working with the Times. What – Mark, did something happen in Kurdistan? (1999:67)
The simple and carefully asked question whether something has happened in Kurdistan certainly awaken Mark’s memories about his horrific moments during his stay in Kurdistan – the frightening artillery shell explosion, his excessive worry about whether he might undergo the triage process or not, and his fear of not being able to survive through all those worst moments in Kurdistan. Upon remembering again, Mark’s defense is starting to weaken. Although he does not turn mad, his emotion is quite disturbed by the re-experiencing state. Mark slowly feels fragile and insecure, but still unable to share it with her or anyone else.
Mark does not only endure re-experiencing state right after coming home from that traumatic and devastating war in Kurdistan, but he is also having flashbacks weeks after his returning home. For instance, the flashback of traumatic event with dying Colin suddenly pops up when he and Joaquin attempt to retrace the possible sources of Mark’s post-traumatic stress. They do the retracing process by marking some particular places in maps where Mark had been during his past traumatic moments. The marking on the maps goes pretty well along Mark’s explanation about his exact location, but, unfortunately, it is not until they reach the place where the artillery shell landed. Joaquin’s simple question about Colin’s exact location at the time the artillery shell landed surely triggers Mark’s painful memory.
So you were standing here…he said softly, remotely, as if to himself… and the artillery shell landed here … and where was Colin? (1999:161) Similar to previous times when anyone often tries to make what he had been through in Kurdistan as a main subject of the talk, the flashback of his past traumatic experiences always go hand in hand with his dropping state of his psychological condition. In a split second, he becomes senseless. He is no longer able to envision his surroundings and finally he finds himself back to the emotionally awakening moment where he spent his last time with dying Colin who was begging to be saved and kept on mumbling as if he was speaking with his wife, Diane.
… and Mark comes to the blackened ground and there he finds him… and looks into his frightened eyes. Save me, Mark. Save me. Take me home. Please take me home. And some time later, Colin begins to talk to his wife, to slip away, and there is nothing peaceful in this, there is a last moment of shame and nakedness in this (1999:162-163).
The flashbacks of his horrific past happenings keep carrying on even when there is any single sight, sound, and smell that triggers it. Mark’s thought suddenly projects the traumatic memories when he is alone and does not think of any particular subject in mind. This re-experiencing state happens when Mark is leisurely drowning his body into a bathtub in his New York apartment. Intended to feel the warmth steam entering every parts of his exhausted body, he closes his eyes and there come many traumatic moments during his stay in Kurdistan. First, he remembers about a seriously wounded man in Harir cave in whose stomach lies a bullet, named Mustafa Karim. Like others, he has to face any decided treatment he would immediately receive based on the tag given by Dr. Talzani. There is nothing extremely special until Mark’s camera captures the whole figure of Mustafa, revealing the blue tag amid his bloody fingers.
He closed his eyes and saw each frame… Mustafa Karim… now with a bullet in his stomach and lying in the Harir cave… Now Mustafa stares into the camera, his eyes wider… and in the foreground, at the very bottom of the frame, the blood-colored fingers of Mustafa Karim clutch the triage tag and the tag is blue (1999:90).
psyche only involves the detail of triage process, from the beginning until the silence moment after Talzani releases his last, the end-of-suffering moment.
Mustafa being carried to the cemetery, the mullah beside reading from the Koran… Now Talzani kneels beside him … and the gun is coming up… and there is a bright yellow flash in Talzani’s hand, a puff of red mist, and now Mustafa’s head is turned to the side, his mouth is pursed, his face smoothed of pain or fear or worry, and Mustafa is at peace… (1999:90). From those flashing images of Mustafa and the devastating triage process Mark has witnessed in Kurdistan, his mind reluctantly moves into the thought of Colin with no one accompanying him and unable to survive from sudden catastrophe then he is finally gone without a trace.
And then, against his will, another vision came into Mark’s mind. It was of Colin and he was standing alone out in the desert and the wall of sand and noise was coming for him, sweeping over the flat land like a wave, and then it was upon him and he was thrashing, staggering, trying to get out, but already it had his feet, already it was too late (1999:90).
The traumatic moments that come again in the form of flashbacks causes inexplicable numbness over his body. It seems that Mark is no longer capable of controlling his own movement. His inability to move normally is worsened by his mixture feeling of sudden fright and panic that finally forces him to sit helplessly on the bathroom floor. In such unbearable condition, he starts to re-envision himself at the mountain, struggling to stand firm on the ground as well as to be able to survive, and this evokes certain sadness in him.
He touched his legs. They felt as if they belonged to someone else… He gripped the side of the tub, attempted to hoist himself up, but the legs lay dead before him. A stab of fear, the heat and moisture of the room suddenly suffocating, pinching the life from him… The floor felt cold and good beneath him, but the legs felt nothing (1999:90-91).
The re-experiencing states seem to haunt Mark’s everyday life, even when his physical condition is getting better. This case is apparent at times when he is in Spain weeks after his returning from Kurdistan. His mind is reluctant to end the sudden and unpredictable flashbacks of particular traumatic past events during his days in Kurdistan that later always construct unbearable grief in him.
Despite his gradual physical improvement, despite the pleasured face he displayed, there were moments when Mark was wrenched back to the mountain or the river or the cave. These moments came without warning…-and Mark would be gripped with a sadness that seemed ready to crush him (1999:176-177).
In addition to the continuous re-experiencing states caused by any sights, sounds, smells that remind Mark of traumatic past events he has undergone, and even simply talks about it, along with recurring flashbacks, Mark is likely to show another PTSD symptom, known as avoidance. As it has been reviewed before, as someone who is suffer from PTSD, Mark also attempts to segregate himself from anything that reminds him of the past traumatic happenings, whether in the form of things, places, or even people who are directly as well as indirectly connected. Although Mark does not extremely avoid any potential remembrances of his past traumatic memories, especially those of Kurdistan, he still indicates avoidance state by deciding to cancel his going to Burma. His decision certainly comes as a surprise for Elena who knows that Mark has been hoping to work with the Times since quite a long time and now he suddenly decides to unreasonably let this rare opportunity pass.
In this case, if it is analyzed based on theory on PTSD symptoms, Mark is possible to have certain fear inside that if he agreed to take the job and went to Burma, he would face horrific and traumatic moments he had faced earlier in Kurdistan. No matter how difference Burma from other places he had been, his job still as a war photographer, always forever deals with wars and photography. For him, he had enough of undergoing such terrifying happenings, such as capturing triage process, the civilians’ death, and the most important thing is that he does not want to lose anyone whom he loves so much, one Colin is enough to stimulate his endless grief. Therefore, by staying away temporarily from all war photography stuffs, he hopes to revive his psychological condition back to normal. Unfortunately, staying in New York works ineffectively for his complete and thorough psychological revival because there are several things that remind him of his traumatic past events. Moreover, he still has his fellow photographers around who unwillingly bring back his memories about Colin, and not to forget Colin’s wife, Diane, whom he cannot completely avoid unless he is able to get out of New York and stay somewhere else far from it. When all of his desperate attempts to hide the fact that Colin is death are no longer works, without considering further, he tells Elena that he wants to go to Spain with her and Joaquin along with mixed feelings of doubt, fear, anguish, and enigmatic deadness.
He was pale with exhaustion, as pale as when she had found him on the bathroom tiles…and her tears at that moment were for both Colin and the numbed pain she saw in his eyes.
I don’t know. I didn’t want it to be true. I so didn’t want it to be true. I think for a time I even believed…’ He turned to her then, and there was such sorrow and shame in his eyes…
I want to go away. With you. I want to go to Spain (1999:164).
The avoidance state does not stop until Mark decides to avoid anything in New York that is likely to trigger back his traumatic memories of what happened in Kurdistan by “escaping” to Spain with Elena and Joaquin, but he illustrates another form of simple avoidance by incapability to psychologically balance himself when he meets Diane and has a light conversation with her. It happens when he and Elena visit Diane after her labor in the hospital. Instead of showing joy upon the birth, Mark keeps on closing his eyes and begins to lose control of his own self. He doesn’t dare to look Diane in the eyes, not even see and embrace the newborn baby because he knows that he is to blame for not telling the truth of Colin’s death to her from the very beginning and because of that, he ask for her forgiveness. However, it is hard for him to accept the fact that his beloved friend died.
Would you like to see the baby? she asked. Would you like to hold her? Mark closed his eyes and shook his head. He felt his jaw begin to tremble. Tears slipped from his closed eyes. I didn’t know how to say goodbye. I loved him. I still don’t. I’m sorry (1999:164).
She continued to beg him, her arm outstretched. But Mark would only shake his head, his eyes shut tight (1999:165).
his return from Kurdistan. Many times, he becomes quite sensitive and seems irritable particularly when all of sudden his mind reluctantly projecting flashbacks of certain traumatic happenings. For him, instead of putting himself into unreasonable rage as a mean to express the oppression of war inside, he chooses to keep it for himself although he cannot avoid crying. For instance, when he is alone in his apartment with his thirty-four boxes of slides which he had arranged them in order. At first, the images projected dreary sights, such as “ Kurdish women breaking down old bolt-actions, earnest Pesh Merga cadets going through drills with stick-guns on their shoulders, a nice shot of a young boy bayoneting a sawdust dummy” (1999:51). In addition to those dreary images, there are slides of the particular ambush of Iraqi troops and its after effects showing the fraught Pesh Merga on their way back to the mountain hill. Upon projecting these images, Mark does not feel emotionally awakened and no weird indication as a result of his PTSD is clearly shown. Unfortunately, this absent of PTSD symptoms does not last until he reaches the twenty-nine projecting images of Colin and himself acted cheerily and foolishly like a Pesh Merga. It is surely one of their best moments ever captured in camera. After seeing his own images together with Colin, even when he has turned off the projector, however, Mark cannot help crying.
Against his will, his gaze moved across the room, to the slide boxes on the coffee table. He felt the coming of tears and turned quickly to the window. The light dazzled his eyes, made everything he saw glitter like jewels (1999:51).
avoidance by keeping away his sights from Diane and the newborn baby in the
hospital (1999:164). Actually, along with his performing common PTSD symptom known as avoidance, he also experiences arousal state in a way his movement turns into inconsistent ones – his jaw is quivering and once again, he breaks into tears.
Mark closed his eyes and shook his head. He felt his jaw begin to tremble. Tears slipped from his closed eyes. I didn’t know how to say goodbye. I loved him. I still don’t. I’m sorry (1999:164).
years of searching (1999: 74). Mark suddenly bears the missing Carlos Perez in mind when he drives alone in the area of Alpujarra. He suddenly catches sight of the written sign of “Olia” and there goes thought about Perez whom Joaquin said known for his reputation as “Beast of Olia” (1999:188-189). After that, he straight away explains to Elena that he wants to go to Olfa the next morning to see if he could find any information about Carlos Perez there and asks for her escort.
Right, he said. Well, I was thinking of going up there tomorrow, just asking around, see if he ever did show up again. You want to come along? (1999: 190)
Mark’s replacement behavior comes into realization when Mark and Elena finally come to Olia and hear themselves what were actually going on with Perez and any facts that are likely related to him from its inhabitants (1999: 201). As other typical symptoms of PTSD, Mark’s impulsive curiosity on things unrelated to him is in fact a part of his excessive self-arousal. As mentioned earlier, he prefers to find information about Carlos Perez without exactly knowing why he has desire on the matter.
Elena searched his face, searched out to touch his arm. He looked into the darkening valley and tried to find some answer to her question. ‘I would just like to find him, that’s all,’ he said, because he could not think of anything else to tell her (1999: 208).
The writer has explained about the common symptoms of PTSD undergone by the main character in Triage namely Mark Walsh that is grouped into re-experiencing, avoidance, and arousal states. When we concern about PTSD, we
oppression in his everyday life. In the theoretical review on PTSD reactions, it is stated that people suffer from PTSD tend to involuntarily build up sense of defenselessness in them. Seemingly without logical explanation, they become terribly frightened and unable to control themselves. These things often happen to Mark even though he is no longer directly face the cruelty of the war’s oppression. However, its influences will certainly last afterwards for some period of time. The clearest illustration on how in sudden Mark loses control of himself is when he just comes home from Kurdistan one late afternoon. For him, it is certainly against his habit of getting rid of all pressures caused by hard times in the past. Changing his habit by flying directly home to New York, even now in his own apartment, Mark cannot avoid becoming easily vulnerable that consequently makes him unable to manage himself. He remains still when the bathroom filled with the steam until he falls unconsciously.
This time, of all times, he should have waited. In the misting bathroom of his home, he felt helpless and besieged, gripped by a loneliness deeper than any he had ever known (1999:32).
The entire room became indistinct in the steam. Looking down, he could not see his own feet. He looked dead, his head lolled on the porcelain, one hand dangling over the edge (1999:33).
physical recovery (1999:176-177). In addition to the recurring flashbacks of traumatic past experiences, in Triage, it is often stated that Mark’s emotional states are quite inexplicable because he has mixture of uncertain feelings – grief rage, indignity, and resentment.
I don’t know. I didn’t want it to be true. I so didn’t want it to be true. I think for a time I even believed…He turned to her then, and there was such sorrow and shame in his eyes… (1999:164).
For Mark, the grief he frequently suffers as part of the influence of war’s oppression, which used to be his “daily” milieu, still exists inside him although he is far away from any potential remembrances of the traumatic past happenings. Even when he finally says that his condition is improving, he is still not sure of the improvement because his angst refuses to completely die out.
The sadness, it never goes away. I’m sad all the time.
peacefully. It is certainly develops guiltiness in him for putting his own safety in the first place.
Mark scanned the hospital room. I guess I felt responsible somehow (1999:122).
Another emotionally shocking moment is when a woman asked him to find her family member’s skulls in a quite primitive village in Uganda. Since it was impossible task to perform, he pretended to select which skull fits the woman’s description. It was all right until the woman wanted to pay for his service.
Mark stopped picking at the armrest, rubbed his hand against his jaw. And I think what struck me the most, the thing that kind of bothered me, was that she tried to pay me… Mark gazed at the ceiling, trying to think of the words. . I don’t know. I don’t know. There was just something so sad and dignified, proud, in that (1999:148-149).
The last one, he tells Joaquin, is when he was in Sri Lanka. It was terrifying to acknowledge he was the only man alive on the beach witnessing the dead scattered around him.
… of how it was only when he had walked into their midst, when they lay around him in every direction, that he realized they were dead… of how he had breathed in the intermingled scent of brine and blood and burning fish and understood he was the only living thing on the beach… (1999:154).
from any potential remembrance of traumatic happenings in Kurdistan, including those that are certainly remind him of Colin.
I want to go away. With you. I want to go to Spain (1999:164).
People suffer from PTSD also illustrates another common reaction through their everyday behavior. It is worth noticing that this everyday behavior will prone to be opposing from what they used to do before they suffer from PTSD. That is what happens to Mark. Even though in the novel, there is no apparent mentioning that Mark was once influential, he cannot avoid being difficult to make even simple decision. He appears to be unnecessarily puzzled just to decide which guidebook to buy because he is busily thinking about the future too.
He started with the shelf of regional guidebooks… But now it was different. Now, if they were going to have a baby, Elena would probably take a six-month leave… Connecticut? No…He spotted a guidebook on the Hudson Valley and snatched it off the shelf…The Adirondacks close by… fairly good schools for when the child was of age (1999:86-87). At other time, as part of the consequences of being face-to-face with the cruelty of Wars, he seems to be an individual who is easily gives up in a way he cannot stand for his own opinion. It happens when he and Elena have a light conversation about her suggestion in involving UN people to get any slightest but important information about Colin.
I know, but Diane is worried. I offered to send a cable. A cable? He frowned. To who?
To the UN people over there, to ask if they’ve seen him (1999:63).
whole business will make the involvers feel humiliated. Instead of sticking to his own opinion and assuring her that it is childish thing to do, he gives up easily and agrees with her idea of involving the UN people to get any information about Colin.
Look, I think it’s a very nice gesture on your part, but I also think it’s premature. Nine days doesn’t mean anything in Kurdistan. Wait a bit. If he shows up and the UN are running all over Kurdistan looking for him, it’s going to be embarrassing. And I really doubt the camp workers over there would appreciate being – (1999:63-64).
Okay, he said. You’re right (1999:64).
Not only at that time Mark is irritable about simple matter, but even when he gets acquainted with Joaquin, the only person whom he tells about most of his traumatic past memories, he turns out to be petulant when Joaquin softly “forces” Mark to tell about what he truly felt when he was the only man alive on Sri Lanka’s beach. Fortunately, this only last just for a short moment and thus, it does not cause any further violate behavior.
But if you will just tell me one last thing. At that moment, when you understood you were the only one alive on the beach, what were your thoughts?
I had no thoughts. But what did you feel? I didn’t feel anything.
Come, you must have felt something? Fear? Sorrow? Relief at having survived? (1999:154)
Fuck you. You’re not really a psychiatrist. I’m not one of your war criminals, so let’s just stop all this shit (1999:155).
consequences, from small change like different physical appearance, degrading stamina, to quite serious wounds. Initially, we recognize that Mark is injured when he lays weakly on the flat rock after the artillery shell incident. Although at first, he does not feel any harm but his body movement, what he senses indicate that he is wounded.
No pain… There didn’t appear to be anything wrong with it. The right arm lay on his chest, the hand rising and falling as he breathed… The fingers trembled, and he felt their nervous little taps on a rib… His left foot twitched back and forth… Mark twisted to see that his head had rested in a slight bowl in the rock. A pool of blood there (1999:12).
Later, even he is no longer lay down helplessly and tells Talzani he does not feel any serious ache, his body movement is still rigid.
Talzani straightened and took back his cigarette. He stared at Mark’s body, sent twin streams of smoke out his nose. Can you move your arms? Mark bit his lip and slowly raised his elbows a little of the mattress. Your legs? (1999:17)
He tried to lift his legs clear from the bed but couldn’t; he brought his feet in, pushed the knees up a few inches (1999:18).
Besides the physical effects mentioned before, there are wounds all over his body noticeable when Elena bathe him after finding him lay unconsciously on the bathroom floor.
She looked over his body. Through the murk, Elena saw its mottle of bruises. Picking up the hand she had placed in the water, she examined the cuts. They were shallow – little more than scratches, really – and she took the washcloth from the soap rack and began to bathe him (1999:33).
