In the contemporary world, trauma has become a common occurrence mainly due to the increase in violent acts that are aired by the media. It does not necessarily mean that one has got to witness a live event for it to become traumatic. Literature and the psychoanalytic theory interconnect in their attempt to explain how trauma comes about by using the qualities of knowing and not knowing.
In the article “Unclaimed Experience”, the qualities of knowing and not knowing have been shown to clearly yield into post-traumatic stress disorder, plainly stated as trauma. While witnessing an event, one does not know what they are seeing until it becomes a frequent nightmare in one’s life. To some extent, individuals know what they are seeing in terms of physical description but they do not know the extent of what they are seeing until it becomes a constant reminder of the event that is engraved in their eyes (Caruth 10).
This is what transforms into trauma, and it is also at this point that the language of literature manifests itself. An example of a soldier, who in a numbed state witnesses the sudden and massive death around him, shows that the soldier does not observe what is happening around him in his right state of mind (Caruth 11). The language of literate and the psychoanalytic theory of trauma both meet in their explanation of how trauma comes about.
It is through the act of not knowing either due to shock or powerlessness but very much knowing through awareness of what is happening that leads to trauma. In order for an event to be traumatic, it has to create that notion of unknowing within oneself such that whatever one does at the time is not based on a rational decision. In the example of the soldier, he became numb and was not able to do anything. However, later on, he relived this experience in frequent nightmares.
The psychoanalytic theory of trauma has been postulated by various physicians, psychiatrists and psychoanalysts as an experience that overwhelms a person beyond his or her recognition to the extent that he or she becomes disoriented and extricated from his or her body (Levine and Maggie 4). Trauma also overwhelms individuals in the form of fate or a series of painful events that cannot be controlled. Such an example is the story by Tasso “in his romantic epic Gerusalemme Liberata” (Caruth 2).
The history of the Jews by Sigmund Freud, “Moses and Monotheism”, the psychoanalytic theory of trauma shows that the foundation of the Jewish nation was associated with the traumatic experience by Moses. Thus Freud says that despite the persecutions, he is surprised at how the Jewish have turned out (Caruth 12). According to Freud, the most important thing in the history of the Jewish from captivity to return to freedom is not the later but the repression of Moses’ murder and its effects. The trauma around the deeds of Moses is very fundamental here.
In the film Udaan, without knowing it, Rohan becomes a victim to events around him but on a conscious mind that shows he is aware of what is happening. As earlier stated, when individuals succumb to catastrophic events that disorient their whole being, they are not rationally fit to know what is actually happening to them until the effects are felt or seen. This is the very same case for Rohan in the film Udaan. His egoistic and brutal father is the reason why Rohan experiences trauma.
Growing up under such brutal authority is apparently normal to him but he does not know that this actually is more harmful than it is beneficial. Traumatized children show anti-social behavior and are mainly in conflict with other people including authorities. This is the reason why Rohan ends up being expelled due to misbehavior.
The qualities of not knowing and knowing manifest themselves here just like in any other traumatic experience in that at the time one goes through traumatizing experience, he or she like Rohan, does not know what this is actually doing to him or her and he or she may perceive it as a normal occurrence. It is not until the experience repeatedly reoccurs in these people’s imaginations through action or nightmares that they actually know that whatever experience they had was injurious to their well being.
According to Levine and Maggie (5), persons become internally unaware of what is happening around them and they cannot fully rely on responses for safety. This is because their very responses can become another reason for additional pain and fright. As for Rohan, he had to give in to the oppression from his father when he was young due to his size, age, among other vulnerabilities.
If he were to respond, it would have yielded into more fatal results or it would have been disadvantageous. The film shows that when Rohan is not able to tolerate more of the brutal abuse from his father, he results in defending himself by engaging in a physical fist with his father.
Roy, Rohan’s father, goes on to impose an engineering course on Rohan, whose passion is writing. Roy is not aware of the harm he has repeatedly brought on Rohan so far in addition to dictating his life, yet Rohan has his own preferences. Rohan’s actions of stealing his father’s car and fighting him are the result of the trauma he has been subjected to in his life.
His poem, Udaan, clearly indicates his traumatic experience which is now vivid and known to him. In this poem, Rohan knows of what he has gone through and has lived the effects of these events. His experiences are the reason why he is now barefoot, walking upon a few scattered memories (Udaan).
Eventually Rohan leaves his father and takes with him his brother Arjunn. Just like in the building of a new Jewish nation from traumatic experience by the repression of the deeds of Moses, Rohan sets out to fulfill his dream out of his traumatic experience with his father. His trauma can be viewed as the reason why Rohan takes his brother along as he does not want his brother Arjunn to suffer in the hands of their father as Rohan did.
Trauma has now become something that everyone is talking and worried about. This is due to its disastrous effects that can jeopardize one’s life. Alternatively, it can yield into something good as is the case with Rohan, who sets out to build his future, and the Jewish nation that was established on the basis of trauma.
Unfortunately, it mainly goes unnoticed since a traumatized person will rarely open up but instead suffers alone. There is however the need to be able to identify traumatized persons so that they can get timely treatment and continue living normal lives.
Works Cited
Caruth, Cathy. Unclaimed Experience: Trauma and the Possibility of History. California: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996. Print.
Levine, Peter A., and Maggie Kline. Trauma Through a Child’s Eyes: Awakening the Ordinary Miracle of Healing. Berkeley: North Atlantic Books, 2007. Print.
Udaan. Ex. Prod. Sanjay Singh. India: Mahendra J. Shetty. 2010. DVD.