ASSIMILATION AND HEALING OF WAR TRAUMA: A STUDY OF EXIT WEST BY MOHSIN HAMID

Received: 24.08.2021; Revised: 30.09.2021, Accepted: 06.11.2021, Published Online: 29.11.2021

Safa Mir Lecturer

Department of English and Literary Studies University of Management and Technology Sialkot Campus.

Dr. Muhammad Akbar Khan

Associate Professor Department of English University of Lahore Gujrat Campus.

Muhammad Ramzan

M Phil Applied Linguistic Email: ramzanmalik122@gmail.com (Corresponding Author)

Abstract

This research purports to study the assimilation, effects and healing of war trauma in Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West. The researcher has applied theoreticalframework of Trauma propounded by Caruth, Cathy “The Unclaimed Experiences“. It vividly explains the manifestation of Trauma and its effects in the noveland how belatedness of Trauma acts as a catalyst unless one does not embrace it to invigorate himself. It foretells about the pandemonium of trauma and how it brings cataclysmic changes to a person’s memory. Traumatic experiences are intrusive phenomena where constant redundancy of pain is present with a delayed response resulting in mayhem caused to a person psychologically. The research concludes that trauma may be act as a tool to survive from the pain and sufferings caused by it. It also highlights the importance of identification and healing of through acceptance.

Keywords: war trauma, assimilation, healing, PTSD, mayhem, cataclysmic