Comparative Essay
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Introduction
Post-traumatic stress disorder is shortened as PTSD refers to particular reaction sets that develop in individuals who have recently undergone a technical traumatic event that negatively affected their normal lives. PTSD reactions may result from the individuals’ threats from their lives, including vehicle accidents, sexual or physical assault, natural disasters, and wars. The reactions finally lead to emotional or mental stress that affects the life of the affected individual. From the novel “Can you hear the Nightbird call,” Rau Badami presents characters who appear to be struggling with PTSD due to some major traumatic events that left unforgettable scars on the individuals (Bhat, 2018).
Similarly, Hemingway Ernest exposed some of the characters in his short story under post-traumatic stress disorder due to surprise and trauma. Badami writings make the novel unique by linking the native ties of India and Canada through three women who undergo a strong trauma that impacts their lives. Canada is known for its multiculturalism; it is a bit different from India globally known for its exotic spices. On the other hand, in his Indian Camp story, Hemingway mainly focused on a Christmas baby that had been expected by a couple. This paper analyzes a comparison between characters from Anari’s story and Badami’s novel, who struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder due to traumatic events (Daiker, 2016). For instance, Leela and Nimmo from the novel, “Can you Hear the Nightbird Call,” struggled with trauma. Besides, Nick and his George, his uncle, suffered from trauma from the Caesarian birth they were exposed to for the first time. The characters and their traumatized moments have been described and compared in detail.
Nimmo, a Sikh and niece to Bibi-Ji, a character from the novel, encounters a fate that traumatizes her entire life at five years. Firstly, her paternal family disappeared while she was five years old in the partition of Pakistan and India in 1967. Her family’s disappearance negatively affected her relationship with her neighbors, in which she lived desperately as she was afraid of violence. Besides, she met a great tragedy that remained in her mind forever in which she lost the whole of her second family in a bloody anti-riot. The death of her family members is imagery in which one can feel the death of the members. As per the novel description, Nimmo feared violence and was afraid of abandonment as she lived a lonely life. Some of the challenges arising from living from a traumatized situation include physical discomfort, having strong negative emotions such as trapped or helpless, and an increase in negative trauma body sensation.
For the case of Nimmo, healing from her situation appears difficult. However, she can heal through three main phases: safety, stabilization, mourning, and remembrance. Besides, she can heal through integration and reconnection techniques to think positively about what happened. Additionally, the trauma specialists, including chemotherapists, can help disturbed patients to recover from the disorder. Other people should accept their situation to enable them to feel secure cooperating and associate in groups. Nimmo’s trauma can be related to Nick from the Indian Camp story because she had no means of avoiding the events that happened since her childhood. She suffered from high traumatization, just like Nick, because she did not have any other techniques to avoid it. Ironically, Nimmo was a niece to Bibi-Ji, who stole her sisters’ fate. The same problems encountered Bibiji followed Nimmo; she had no control over it (Bhat, 2018). Her mother, Kanwar, could face the fate that impacted Bibiji in her entire life, but she was saved from theft. Similarly, they considered Canada a peaceful environment, but it was also worse than they expected.
Leela, an in-between individual, born from a Hindu father and German mother, meets a traumatic event where she is required to make a new beginning after her beloved husband decides to migrate from their Indian homeland to Canada (Daiker, 2016). Her husband’s migration from India freshens her in-between identity that gives her a hard time to live since she had gotten used to their interesting marriage decorated by weddings and birthday celebrations. However, as life continued, she faced another tragedy that affected her mentality, which later contributed to her death. The partitioning of Pakistan and India in 1967 by its colonizers took place, which resulted in the death and assassination of several individuals that affected Leela over her remaining lifetime. From the partitioning, Leela physically experienced an Air Explosion that killed 182 people on the coast of Ireland.
The air explosion is symbolic of the effects of war in which lives are lost among individuals. The explosion left her traumatized in which she felt a great threat in her entire life. As a result of the trauma, before her death, Badami records that she lived in fear because humanity had been taken for granted in India. Both the situations affected Leela’s relationship with people as she lost trust and looked at her husband as a traitor for abandoning his beloved country because of family differences. In her lifetime, Leela could have healed her trauma by explaining it to people to get rid of it from her mentality, connect with more people, and focus most on what she would feel stable and safe to do. Leela can be compared to Uncle George in the Indian Camp story; she assumed most of her husband’s ideas regardless of the war that affected India and Pakistan. She believed in staying in her homeland and decided to remain despite his husband’s instructions. The killing of the one hundred and eighty-two individuals is clear imagery that we can fictionally see under imagination. Seeing 182 bodies lying in a pool of blood, something that can’t be easily imagined (Bhat, 2018).
Indian Camp is a Short Story by Hemingway Ernest that focuses on a traveling scenario. the main characters are Nick, his father, George, an Indian woman in labor, and her husband. From the short story, Nick is traumatized from the Caesarian birth that his father orders him to focus on despite his first time. Besides, he becomes more shocked when he saw the dead man who had split his throat using a razor blade (Daiker, 2016). The resultant situation affected his relationship with his own father and the other Indian men. As a result of the traumatization, Nick might develop challenges, including deficiencies in communication due to fear, ignorance of the importance of life displayed from the question he posed to his further concerning death, and unconventional retarding care. From my perspective, Nick can overcome the trauma, but it will require a long time. His father sailed the boat by himself to prove to him the meaning of life. His father asked him to visit the cam in which he ordered him to look at the Caesarian process; hence he was involuntarily engaged in the traumatization. Symbolism is displayed from the story in which Nicks father and the woman’s husband under operation both use razorblades to solve issues. Nicks’s father uses a knife to save the life of the mother and her child. However, the Indian man uses a razor blade to take his own life regardless of the pain. The blades can signify a difference in culture in solving issues between the Indian man and Nicks father concerning an individual’s pain. Nick finds out that his father is used seeing patients in labor. He decides to run away from the scenario in which he encounters a more rough scene than where he is coming from, as discussed.
Additionally, Uncle George got shocked about why the man killed himself, yet a child was delivered successfully. It appeared confusing because it was a pleasure for a Samaritan to save the soldier’s life in labor, but his husband killed himself (Bhat, 2018). The scene he saw can affect his relationship with his friends because he was not used to and he was the first person to find the dead man. Some of the situation’s challenges may include reduced communication skills, increased fear, and being ever guilty. As compared to Nick, Uncle George voluntarily visited the soldiers camp in which he got traumatized willingly, unlike Nick, who was ordered by his further. From the uncle’s condition, the disorder can be overwhelmed by focusing on his duties and avoiding thoughts concerning the act and the dead man (Daiker, 2016). The congratulations that uncle George utters appear ironic to the whole group. He supports Nick’s father in targeting a successful birth regardless of the pain by the Indian mother. The woman successfully delivers but undergoes a lot of pain in which he does not receive any painkiller.
Conclusion
Conclusively, from the two texts discussed, the characters encountered traumatization that killed some and almost led to others’ death (Daiker, 2016). Her husband abandoned Leela in her marital home and further distressed during the partitioning of India. Nimmo suffered the trauma of early separation from her family members hence lived a lonely life. Additionally, her current family was killed in a war between her extended family members that left her helpless. On the other side, Nick was shocked to find out that an Indian man killed himself using a razor by cutting his throat. Additionally, his father forced him to look at the Caesarian process in which he wanted him to learn and understand the meaning of life (Bhat, 2018). Finally, Uncle George got astonished to find a dead man with a deep razor cut on the throat. The traumatized characters underwent challenges such as communication problems, lack of cooperation, and increased fear. Additionally, counseling became difficult as the engaged mainly in imaginations about their fateful past events.
References
Bhat, S. D. (2018). Sikh diasporic negotiations: Indian and Canadian history in Can You Hear the Nightbird Call? Si1), 55-70. Retrieved from: https://www.tbefore her death andfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17448727.2018.1438881?casa_token=M4-2JFxm8D0AAAAAickb_Q3tV4aBbv1f-0gtrql2aF1JHofzxlg_kIkrbefore her death jumTJhjrWiBBPlDTTQwSg
Daiker, D. A. (2016). In defense of Hemingway’s Doctor Adams: the case for” Indian Camp.” The Hemingway Review, 35(2), 55-69. Retrieved from: https://muse.jhu.edu/article/618604/summary?casa_token=VScN1Ia_YNAAAAAA:hfNHB4KodJt_YrkGwoZukC2sD0a7PmleKPcFTHM25rvLQsqDXyT_j17aCzhSbYZgczcED0bA