Response to Post-traumatic Stress Disorder in Paula Hawkin’s The Girl on the Train
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Department of English
Abstract
The research project aims to illustrate the response to post-traumatic stress
disorder in Paula Hawkin’s The Girlon the Train. This project explore show Megan
and Rachel’s memory of past experiences haunt them in their daily life and show how
it makes their life terrible and complicated to survive.It further explores how they
deal with trauma to heal themselves.They suffer from different symptoms of post-
traumatic stress disorder such as:intrusive imagery, avoiding stimuli and increased
arousal.While doing it, there searcher has incorporated the theoretical insights of
trauma, particularly from the book Counseling for Post Traumatic Disorder by
Michael J. Scott and Stephen G. Strading. And, this paper also frames out the notion
of‘working through’ by DominickLa Capra from his book;Writing History, Writing
Trauma.The research concludes with the findings that the people have some past
memories which are unforgettable, that directly or indirectly affect present life.
Instead of lamenting on past memory people should take those traumatic experiences
as a platform to refresh themselves.Thus in the text,Rachel and Megan take different
strategies to cope with trauma to live with happy and healthy life;Megan became
nanny, walk on street, visit therapist where Rachel helps in the process of
investigation of Megan’s disappearance and goes through fantasy to forgether past
memories.
Keywords: Post traumatic stress disorder, past memory, working through, articulation