A Study of Trauma in Nadeem Aslam’s

The Blind Man’s Garden

By
Fatima Noor
Reg. # WUM/ENG-13/1-11
Supervised byMs. Mamona Yasmin Khan

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree

Master of Philosophy

In

English

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH

THE WOMEN UNIVERSITY MULTAN

August, 2020
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 i

DEDICATION

I dedicate my work to my family, my teachers and my supporters, who motivated me a lot to

complete my study.
 ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

All praise to Allah Almighty with the blessings of Whom I am able to complete my study. I am

highly obliged to my supervisor, Ms. Mamona Yasmin Khan, who guided and motivated me

throughout my study and was always there to support me whenever I was stuck not only in this

thesis but also in my course work. I am truly indebted to her because I know I would not be able

to complete my thesis without her sincere attention to me. I would like to thank Dr. Asmat

Rizwan, chairperson of Department of English who have been a constant mentor in my

endeavors.

In the end I would never be able to carry out this research work if my friends didn't support me. I

would like to thank my friends who have always encouraged me in this research work.

Fatima Noor
 iii

ABSTRACT
America’s war on terror was forced on Afghanistan, but it affected Muslims all over the world,

in particular, Pakistani Muslims. The war on terror after the 11 September 2001 attacks puts

Pakistani people in severe mental distress. This study aims to discover the mental trauma of

Pakistani people by analyzing The Blind Man’s Garden (2013) penned by Nadeem Aslam.

Literary trauma theory is used to analyze the selected fiction. Literary trauma theories by Cathy

Caruth (1996), Kai Erikson (1994), and Ann Whitehead (2004) are monitored to scrutinize the

selected novel. This study analyzes the trauma of Pakistani people who were affected by the war

on terror imposed on them by America after the attacks of 11 September 2001, using the selected

fiction as its base. This qualitative study was conducted after reading the significant works

related to trauma theory and fiction; moreover, twenty passages were carefully chosen from the

selected fiction by non-random judgmental sampling technique. Using Caruth’s trauma theory,

this study argues that the significant characters in the selected fiction show that the traumatic

incidents, flashbacks of memories, and dreams that are embedded in their minds make them

traumatized individuals. This study also claims that these traumatized characters lead to the

trauma of the whole society bearing in mind Erikson’s collective trauma theory. Finally, by using

Whitehead’s Trauma Fiction (2004), the selected work of writing is proved as a trauma fiction.

This study concludes that in a trauma fiction, individuals and societies that are bearing trauma,

convey the trauma of actual people whom they portray in the fictional narrative.
 iv

Contents
Dedication………………………………………………………………………………………..i
Acknowledment…………………………………………………………………………………ii
Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………………iii
Contents………………………………………………………………………………...……….iv
INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................... 1
1.1 Background to the study ................................................................................................... 1

1.2 Understanding Trauma ..................................................................................................... 3

1.3 Statement of Problem ....................................................................................................... 5

1.4 Delimitation ...................................................................................................................... 6

1.5 Significance of Research .................................................................................................. 6

1.6 Research Objectives ......................................................................................................... 7

1.7 Research Question ............................................................................................................ 7

1.8 Chapter Division .............................................................................................................. 8

LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................................................................ 10

Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 10
2.1 Conceptualising Trauma ................................................................................................ 11

2.1.1 Individual and Collective Trauma .......................................................................... 14

2.2 Models of Trauma .......................................................................................................... 20

2.3 Literature about Trauma ................................................................................................. 26

2.4 Critical Analysis on Aslam’s “The Blind Man’s Garden” ............................................. 31

2.5 Theoretical Framework .................................................................................................. 35

2.5.1 Theories by Caruth .................................................................................................. 35

 v

2.5.2 Erikson’s Notion of Trauma ................................................................................... 37

2.5.3 Whitehead’s Proposal of Trauma Fiction ............................................................... 38

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY................................................................................................. 41
Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 41

3.1 Research Model .............................................................................................................. 41

3.2 Research Paradigm ......................................................................................................... 43

3.3 Research Approach ........................................................................................................ 44

3.4 Research Purpose ........................................................................................................... 46

3.5 Sample Collection .......................................................................................................... 46

3.6 Arrangement of Data ...................................................................................................... 47

3.7 Ethical Measures ............................................................................................................ 48

3.8 The validity of the Study ................................................................................................ 48

3.9 Limitations of the study.................................................................................................. 48

3.10 Data Analysis .............................................................................................................. 49

DATA ANALYSIS...................................................................................................................... 50
1.9 Theories and Argumentative Analysis ........................................................................... 74

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS ........................................................................ 81

5.1 Findings .......................................................................................................................... 82

5.2 Future Implications and Suggestions ............................................................................. 85

REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................ 87
 vi

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

Abbreviation Explanation

TBMG The Blind Man’s Garden

PTSD Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

APA American Psychiatric Association

WOT War on Terror

US United States
 1

CHAPTER 1
1 INTRODUCTION

Introduction

In this chapter, the topic and area of the research are briefly introduced . Primarily, a

background of the study is discussed, and the statement of the problem is identified . After the

identification of the problem, the objectives to be achieved, and questions to be answered are

highlighted. The chapter also highlights the significance and limitations of the study. In the end,

the chapter throws light on the organization and chapter division of the thesis .

1.1 Background to the study

After the attacks of 9/11, while addressing a joint section of congress and the American nation

(2001), George Bush, who was the president of America at that time, announces a global war on

terrorism (WOT), mainly targeting Muslims. In his address, he declared a continuous war against

terrorism until its defeat. It was the speech in which President Bush coined the ideology of

Islamophobia, and the link between Islam and Violence was subliminally promoted (Beshara,

2018). After this speech, people of America considered all Muslims their enemies and developed

a prejudiced notion about this war on terror. American forces invaded Afghanistan as they believed

that the suspects are Afghani Taliban. Pakistan shares a border with Afghanistan, so there were

also significant changes in Pakistani foreign policy. Before the attacks, Pakistan was supporting

the Taliban government, but after the attacks, it joined hands with Americans . This union with the

American government also had its cons, and Pakistan had to pay the cost for it . The killing,
 2

damage, and trauma that was firstly allocated on Americans and then was poured upon Afghans,

moved to Pakistan. All these nations were facing the effects of war, but no nation was aware of

the troubles faced by other nations.

Many fiction and nonfiction writers wrote about the incident of 9/11. As declared by Camus

(1942), fiction is a myth that helps in telling the truth, the 9/11 fiction also portrayed the truths of

people who were the victims, to people who were unable to experience it themselves or were not

present there. The trauma and frustration are visible in the writings of authors. Many American

writers tried to sneak into the minds of people and pen down their experiences . Schwartz (2002),

in her story about the attacks of 9/11, inscribed the traumatic outcomes of attacks and adverts

helplessness of authors. They were severely traumatized by the event, thus unable to write about

it. Many Muslim writers, including both Afghan and Pakistani writers like Atiq Rahimi, Salman

Rushdie, Khaled Hosseini, Hanif Kureshi, Mohsin Hamid, HM Naqvi, and Nadeem Aslam wrote

about these attacks. Afghani writers tried to portray the trauma Afghani people have gone through.

Several reports show the mental condition of Afghans who are distressed with war from the past

three decades. A report written by Jackson (2012) portrayed the physical and psychological after-

effects of war. According to this report, every two Afghanis from three are in some sort of mental

distress.

Similarly, Pakistani writers also tried to represent the trauma Pakistani people have gone

through while helping Afghans and attempted to tell the world about the feelings of survivors and

the incidents of trauma. Khan (2013), while studying social, financial, and political effects of WOT

in Pakistan, stated that the unending war against terrorism charged Pakistan an immense cost. Its
 3

economy collapsed, the people lost their lives, and Pakistan appeared as a terrorist state, which

significantly damaged its image in the world. These were the infrastructural damages of the

country, but it also faced plenty of psychological damages. As stated by Abbasi in 2013, Pakistan

is facing terrorism as a central danger to its safety. She predicted in her study that this terrorism

rooted in the country will have long term scars on the people of the country as a false sense of

security overrules in the community. She also threw light on the psychological damage of people

and indicated that continuous war against terrorism and an invisible opponent made the people

internally and mentally depressed.

The present study also intends to investigate the mental distress of Pakistani people and to look

out how this WOT filled their lives with traumatic incidents . The present research proposes to

discover the trauma in the life of Pakistani people during the WOT after the attacks of September

2001. To achieve this target Nadeem Aslam’s “The Blind Man’s Garden” (TBMG) published in

2013 is selected because the main characters in this novel suffered a lot due to WOT and are

depicted as traumatized persons who represent other Pakistani people, going through the same war

trauma. The study uses Caruth, Erikson, and Whitehead’s theoretical basis about literary trauma

theory to dissect the nominated fictional work.

Trauma theory will be applied to trace the events in the text that results in the trauma of individuals

as well as societal trauma and prove the text as a trauma fiction.

1.2 Understanding Trauma

It is essential to have an understanding of the basic views of trauma to complete the study.

They are discussed here before analyzing the selected piece of writing. Freud mainly gave trauma
 4

theory in the 19th century, and according to him, trauma is a result of some suppressed memory of

the sexual attack. In a book Studies on Hysteria (1895), Freud and Breuer termed trauma as a

memory disorder in which a horrific experience remains in the mind of the victim, and it reappears

when the victim saw any similar experience. They claim, the trauma comes from some sexual

harassment in the past, and the incident can only be understood after some delay when some similar

event happens again. They termed this delay as Nachtraglichkeit (afterwardness). Concisely,

according to them, the trauma is raised from the recollection of some events in the past. The event

is not itself traumatic, but its memory turns into trauma when it reappears in the mind of the victim.

In his other work written in 1920 Beyond The Pleasure Principle, he wrote about the

psychological effects of war. This work outspreads and adds to his previous theories about defense

and ego and further discussed the trauma that affects the human mind. Traumatic incidents create

clashes between the human mind and ego; as a result, these events become repressed in mind and

reappear later in the form of flashbacks and dreams , causing a continuous blow to the mind of a

victim. A phobia is the result of this continuous blow, which further develops in trauma. In his

study, he discussed the structure of the brain and the way trauma hits it . According to him, the

brain has two layers, just like an organism; the external layer works as a defensive protector to

things that seems dangerous. When a person gets some shock without the brain is ready for it, he

becomes angst. The outer layer defends the state of being worried, but the shock travels inside the

brain to the internal layer, embedding its claws there and resulting in trauma. So, according to him,

trauma is any memory that travels and embeds itself in the internal layer of the brain crossing the

defensive layer.
 5

To cure trauma, Freud also gives some opinions; he argues that a person going through

trauma cannot remember the event as a whole. The suppressed memories that are in his brain are

mainly the chunks of a traumatic incident, and maybe the critical part does not come to his mind,

which could help in solving the case. So the victim should be asked to think that a particular event

as an ongoing happening as the complete history of the traumatic experience is central for healing .

Later, in the 1980s American Psychiatric Association (APA) in The Diagnostic and

Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders third edition (DSM-III) considered trauma a medical

problem for the first time under the name of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). It categorized

PTSD as an anxiety disorder, but DSM-IV classified it as a condition raised from some mental

strain or trauma.

1.3 Statement of Problem

After the 9/11 incident, the world has been facing terror and war. Such a situation has contributed

to several psychological shocks and contributing to trauma amongst the people. Besides other

countries, Pakistan also faced several issues due to its support to America after the 9/11 and Afghan

war. The Taliban has given a significant threat to Pakistan, which led to several military operations

and terrorist attacks. Thus, to share their feelings and the experience of traumatized people, several

authors hold their pen and write down whatever they learn from people’s experiences . The same

job is done by the Nadeem Aslam (a famous writer of Pakistan), whose fiction influences how

certain people see the world, thus helping them to have a worldview. Fiction relating to war

portrays the trauma of people affected by it. A fictional representation of Pakistani people during

the war on terror portrays the traumas Pakistani people met after the invasion of America in
 6

Afghanistan. The selected work of fiction is a portrayal of troubled people of Pakistan suffering

from double, individual, and collective traumas. Such readings, though, play a crucial role in

understanding the situation in Pakistan and the results of terror fight but, somehow, it spread the

psychological impacts. Many of the psychologists are of the view that reading the traumatized

novel causes recur of trauma amongst the readers. Therefore, the current study tries to investigate

distressing incidents and traumatized behavior of main characters in the selected novel using

frameworks given by Caruth, and attempts to find out if a person’s trauma can recur as someone

else’s trauma using the selected fiction as its basis.

1.4 Delimitation

This study is restricted to the analysis of trauma due to the WOT in Pakistani people with

particular reference to The Blind Man’s Garden (2013) by Nadeem Aslam. The theoretical

frameworks formulated by Cathy Caruth has applied to the text to trace the traumatic behavior of

characters. In addition to this theory, Kai Erikson’s theory has also applied to trace public and

personal trauma. At the same time, other sources and points of view gave some significance to

study the selected novel as a trauma narrative.

1.5 Significance of Research

Green and Brock (2002) assert that listeners and readers of a story carry out a psychological

trip in the realm of that story. The reader or the listener gets entirely involved in the scenarios of

the narrative. They proclaim that the recipient practice transportation, travel mentally in the reign

of that narration, and during this process, all his mental and psychological abilities start to relate

with the narrative. Thus, studying literature helps in understanding the mental condition of the
 7

characters. The selected piece of fiction is also a journey in the thoughts of the character as the

writer of the selected novel himself stated (2014) that the outcomes of war stay with people who

are facing it for a very long time. According to him, the purpose of writing this novel is to tell the

world about Pakistan’s side of the story and to let the masses know the price Pakistan paid for this

war. So this research is an attempt to give voice to the mental condition of Pakistani people during

WOT. As per the knowledge of the researcher, this area is unexplored till now. To fill this gap,

Nadeem Aslam’s novel TBMG is selected to trace the entrenched trauma in the behavior of

characters and incidents of the selected fiction. Furthermore, this study tries to dissect the novel

as a trauma narrative.

1.6 Research Objectives

(a) This study tries to investigate distressing incidents and traumatized behavior of the

main characters in the selected novel using frameworks given by Caruth.

(b) This study also attempts to find out if a person’s trauma can recur as someone else’s

trauma using the selected fiction as its basis.

(c) This study endeavors to prove the selected narrative as a trauma novel.

1.7 Research Question

This study tries to unveil

1) How are the traumatic incidents in the selected novel embedded in the minds of

significant characters who are affected by the war on terror?

2) How the trauma of a person in the selected novel represents the trauma of others in

society?
 8

3) To what extent the features of trauma fiction are entrenched in the selected novel?

To answer all these questions, the novel “The Blind man’s Garden” is taken for

investigation.

1.8 Chapter Division

Specific steps are followed in the present study, as Kothari (2004) claimed that there is a

series of steps that are essential for conducting research, and term these steps as the research

process. The followed research process divides the study into five chapters .

• The first chapter presents the background knowledge that plays an essential role in

understanding the study, which is discussed in this portion. Furthermore, research

objectives, questions to be answered, and significance, as well as the limitation of this

study, is introduced.

• The second chapter discusses the introduction to trauma and its emergence as literary

theory. A review of related literature is also part of this chapter. While reviewing related

literature, the main focus is on several models of literary trauma theory . Trauma, as

portrayed in fiction, is also talked about to make the ground of the intended study .

Furthermore, critical reviews and analysis of the selected novel are briefly studied for a

better understanding of the topic. Additionally, the used theoretical framework which

carries out this research is also discussed in detail.

• The third chapter sets a solid base to carry on research. It explains the design, method, and

process with which the study is conducted. It also explains the methods of data collection
 9

and sampling techniques.

• The fourth chapter is a mega portion of the study. In this chapter, an analysis of the selected

novel is conducted. The selected theoretical framework is applied to the text, and the text

is examined to trace traumatic events and incidents. Initially, the characters are examined

for the symptoms of trauma, and then the whole text is searched for collective trauma. The

selected text is also examined to find if it qualifies as a trauma fiction or not.

• The fifth chapter is the final chapter of the study. It concludes the analysis and findings of

the research. It also reports the results and presents this critical analysis in a concluded

form. It further discusses the role of this study and discusses how it is beneficial for readers .

This chapter also elaborates on how this research contributes to further researches . Future

recommendations for the researcher are part of this chapter.

Conclusion

Conclusively the chapter provides an introduction to the research process by highlighting

the background of the WOT. It delivers an understanding of primary trauma, including its rise

as a theory. It also brings forth the significance of the study. This chapter gives an overview

of the whole thesis. It also elaborates the objectives that will be fulfilled and raises the

questions that will be answered after the study.

 10

CHAPTER 2

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

Introduction

An adequate amount of literature has been published to highlight the way trauma has affected

the lives of victims and to spot what political or social factors contribute to the traumatised

situations in society. To develop a theoretical framework, it’s crucial to review the already

published literature and evaluate what other scholars have already done in the respective field .

Also, the essential requirement of research is knowledge and understanding of the history of the

subject (Hart, 1998). Therefore, this chapter gives a review of the literature that is significant to

the current study. This chapter has five parts in which concerning literature is reviewed. The first

section discusses the forming and emerging of trauma and gives the idea about the origin and

emergence of trauma theory. It discusses the kinds of trauma and differentiates individual trauma

from societal or collective trauma. The insight into theoretical models in the field of literary trauma

theory is presented in the second section. The third portion reviews the recently conducted studies

on trauma in the context of literature by different researchers from the past ten years. The fourth

section presents a critical analysis of the available literature on the novel under study. The last part

of the chapter outlines the designated frameworks of trauma theory to apply on the selected text

and also justifies their selection.

 11

2.1 Conceptualising Trauma

During the 19th century, a French neurologist and physician Jean-Martin Charcot, while

studying women on hysteria, investigated the connection of trauma and mental health . He was the

one who put hysteria in the category of psychology rather than physiology. Later in the last decade

of the 19th century, his student, Sigmund Freud (1895) also affirms this idea and argues that

psychological trauma is the cause of hysteria in women . According to his views, the traumatic

experience is often faced by women who were subject to sexual assault before their puberty . He

also gave the concept of “belatedness,” which claims that the women who suffer this trauma do

not develop the traumatic symptoms instantly; these symptoms appear in them with a delay. He

also associated these theories with home returned soldiers of World War I and II.

It can be stated that the theoretical basis of trauma theory is originated from Freud’s

concept of psychoanalysis. In his works Studies on Hysteria (1895) and Beyond the Pleasure

Principle (1920), he presents numerous vital ideas of trauma theory. He defined (1920) trauma as

a shock that is forceful enough to cross all the layers of the brain and embed itself in the internal

layer. In this way, he linked the bodily wound to the mental injury and termed this state of affair

as trauma. He also presents another term, “traumatic neurosis,” while discussing the trauma

specifically in the context of WWI veterans . Here he put the topic of trauma forwards by

investigating these war return soldiers who show a reappearance of their traumatised memories or

try to escape from them completely. This investigation headed to trace symptoms of trauma in

individuals. He wrote an essay “Mourning and Melancholia” (1917) in which he argues about

mourning and melancholy as different situations of sorrow and loss . He argues that after some
 12

trauma, the first natural stage is of grief or mourning, where the victim feels detached from his

surroundings. After this stage came the second stage of loss, which he named as melancholy .

Contrary to the temporary phase of grief, mourning, this stage is ongoing. In mourning, the victim

detaches himself from the world, but in melancholy, he became distant from himself .

Kolk and Hart (1996) also threw light on the work of Kardiner, who studied people’s

reactions when they met some trauma. The victim who went through some trauma experience a

memory loss, for instance, a traumatic person might forget the thing that bothers him like war

memories, but when something like war provokes again, he perhaps starts expressing what is in

his mind. Inspired By his ideas, American psychiatrists proposed therapies . After WWII, there

were many studies on the survivors. These studies mainly point that the survivors are, in fact

suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This term was listed in 1980 by the

American Psychology Association (APA) in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of mental

disorders.

When psychiatrists were studying trauma of war and rape, in the 1990s, literary theory of

trauma came in spotlight proposed by cultural and literary critics. The most prominent literary

critic is Caruth, who gave a general idea of PTSD and argued that it is an agreement on the

phenomenon that a victim always shows a response to trauma, and that is generally postponed .

She (1996) is moved by the notions of Freud and gives the same definition of trauma as of Freud.

She further developed the theory and stated that trauma is not only connected with some physical

loss. It is also suffered when a victim survives. The flashbacks and dreams of a traumatised person

are pieces of evidence that he is the observer of the ones who bear the trauma . In her work
 13

Unclaimed Experience (1996), she tries to form a new theory that is concerned with trauma but

outside the medical field, becoming a pioneer in the field of literary trauma theory. She, just like

Freud, also gave the concept of afterwardness and stated that the delay in the understanding of

trauma is in actual an act of inexpression. The critical point of Caruth’s theory is that trauma brings

a state in which the victim, in actual, is not exposed from the real trauma and carry on to find

experience through replication of similar affairs.

After Caruth, Shoshana Felman and Dori Laub (1992) enhance and add details in Caruth’s

theory, explicitly contributing an approach to have an accurate understanding of the idea of

witnessing. They followed Caruth’s idea and concluded that a person who went through some

trauma looks for things that do not have a physical existence. They present the concept of a

secondary victim, which states that when a traumatic person repeats his story to recover from the

loss, this process becomes a testimony. The person who is listening and witnessing this testimony

becomes a secondary victim. Thus the main idea of their theory is witnessing as it is the vital action

in theory.

Figley puts his views about the stress disorder of Vietnam veterans . He has 24 books on

traumatology in his account. He explained (1978) how war is not over even if it ends . His study

outlines the cost that soldiers pay, not physically but mentally. His writings added a lot to trauma

literature. Shay (1994) also studied the war trauma of Vietnam veterans and made his contribution

by applying imagery of Greek myths on them. For instance, he compares the psychological wounds

of Vietnam veterans with the trauma of Achilles.

 14

2.1.1 Individual and Collective Trauma

Several social incidences or experiences leave a profound impact on human lives and

sometimes contribute to psychological issues, such as anxiety or trauma. Such psychological

problems not only affect the individual but also leave the worst impact on society . Thus, the trauma

can be defined as a deeply distressing and disturbing experience of an individual, Hysteria (1895).

The trauma can be caused by several incidences, including political, social, maternity, family loss,

and others. in the 19th century, Freud was the first person who highlighted the impact of incidences

on the lives in terms of trauma. He presented a theory, according to which trauma is a result of

some suppressed memory of the sexual attack. However, it is not always sexual; instead of any

worst experience or the unfortunate incident can contribute to the trauma. Hysteria (1895) further

elaborated the Freud’s definition of the trauma and termed trauma as a memory disorder in which

a horrific experience remains in the mind of the victim, and it reappears when the victim saw any

similar experience.

Trauma is not only associated with personal experience; instead, it can be anything that

disturbs the individual’s mind and the psychological condition. For example, when people

experience natural disasters, such as an earthquake or the flood, they get traumatised due to the

financial, social, and human losses. Similarly, the wartime scenarios contributed to severe trauma

amongst the military individuals and the civils who experienced or evidenced the worst visions of

pain. Thus, hysteria and trauma come from some sexual harassment, evidence of natural disaster,

bullying, anything disturbing in the past, and the incident can only be understood after some delay

when some similar event happens again. They termed this delay as afterwardness. Concisely,
 15

according to them, the trauma is raised from the recollection of some events in the past. The event

is not itself traumatic, but its memory turns into trauma when it reappears in the mind of the victim.

Not only the personal experiences but sometimes the social experiences contribute to

severe trauma. Notably, the wartime scenarios and the terror attack leave a profound impact on

lives. With the advancement in media and technology, the people are now aware of all the wartime

scenarios and experience the grief of people via live photos and pictures . The dead bodies, sorrow,

grief, crying children, injured people, and cruelty of the warriors cause severe trauma in society.

People get depressed, and the thought of the terrifying visions in their mind keeps disturbing the

society for a long time. The author (Freud, 1920) of Beyond, The Pleasure Principle, wrote about

the psychological effects of war. The literature is the combination of the working of an author on

different theories. Thus, the book outspreads and adds to the writer’s previous theories about

defence and ego and further discussed the trauma that affects the human mind. Traumatic incidents

create clashes between the human mind and ego; as a result, these events become repressed in

mind and reappear later in the form of flashbacks and dreams . During the war, the two

communities or the countries invest their human lives to win the territory . However, such wars

contribute to bloodshed and harmful outcomes, which remain in the mind of humanity for a long

time. Primarily, the ones who face killing, injuries, and threatening are found to have more effect

on trauma and psychological illness. The mind of the war participants and war-affected people

continuously recall them for their worst experiences, and thus continuous blow of mind contributes

to psychological disturbance.
 16

The author (Frued, 1920) highlighted that a phobia takes place in the mind of a victim,

which results in trauma. In his study (Frued, 1920), the author discussed the structure of the brain

and the way trauma hits it. When analysing the biology of the brain, it has two layers, just like an

organism; the external layer works as a defensive protector to things that seems dangerous. When

a person gets some shock without the brain is ready for it, he becomes angst . The outer layer

defends the state of being worried, but the shock travels inside the brain to the internal layer,

embedding its claws there and resulting in trauma. So, according to him, trauma is any memory

that moves and embeds itself in the inner layer of the brain crossing the defensive layer .

Most importantly, when the individual faces something worst, which he does not expect, it

shocks the human mind in the worst way. As a result, the brain either rapidly responds to the

individual to protect him/her or become shocked and freeze that the person remains unable to

perform defence activity. Such incident or shock saves in mind for a long time, and the flashbacks

or memories of that time keep disturbing the human throughout his life. This disturbance has

different levels. Some people get to overcome their thoughts with time and get engaged in a healthy

life to normalise their feelings.

On the other hand, some people get stuck to the shock and keep thinking of the time without

having control over their thoughts and reaction feelings. Such distress contributes to severe trauma

and the worst psychological outcome on the individual’s personality. However, to cure trauma,

Freud also gives some opinions; he argues that a person going through trauma cannot remember

the event as a whole. The memories that are suppressed in his brain primarily are the chunks of a

traumatic incident, and maybe the critical part does not emanate to his mind, which could help in
 17

solving the case. So the victim should be asked to think the particular event as an ongoing

happening as the complete history of the traumatic experience is central for healing .

Based on trauma analysis, it is divided into two major categories; individual trauma and

collective trauma. The individual trauma is only associated with the individual’s feelings and

experiences and thus leaves the worst impact on the individual’s psychological situation. For

example, when the person experiences bullying, discrimination, or any personal attack, he

experiences the individual trauma. He is profoundly affected by that incident. Some people also

experience individual trauma after the death of their loved ones.

In some cases, the mothers experience trauma after their labour process . Such trauma only

affects the personality of one individual, and thus can be treated with psychological treatment

processes. On the other hand, collective trauma affects society or the community. The wartime

scenarios and the terror attacks result in collective trauma, in which society gets affected by the

incident. After the attacks of 9/11, while addressing the joint section of congress and the American

nation (2001), George Bush, who was the president of America at that time, announces a global

war on terrorism (WOT), mainly targeting Muslims. This WOT left the worst impact on the lives

of Muslims, especially in the war regions such as Afghanistan, Syria, and Iraq . The people have

experienced the worst scenarios of their lives, and therefore they get depressed and traumatised .

The collective trauma is a threat to the respective society where the people are profoundly affected

by multiple incidences and take a long time to recover from their psychological illness.
 18

To further understand the individual trauma and collective trauma, several other examples

have been used by the authors. Herman (1992) also explained the difference in the individual and

collective trauma with the examples of disease and war . The trauma of women suffering from

hysteria and of soldiers suffering from the war was private, but it turned into a public trauma after

the feminism wave in 1970. As there raised women groups that supported and encouraged women

to open up and share their traumatic experiences (Herman 1992).

So, it appears that trauma can be individual or collective. Individual trauma affects a person

privately, as the trauma of sexual abuse and collective trauma affects the public as a whole as

World Wars and 9/11 Kai Erikson in 1994 asserts that trauma of an individual and collective

trauma can appear at the same time. He argues that individual traumas combine to create collective

trauma, and this type of trauma can prevail in different social situations as it creates ties and healthy

relationships among the survivors of trauma, just like the bonds of the same language and the same
 19

background. These bonds form because people relate themselves to each other and find themselves

alike.

Erikson (1994) published a study to explain individual trauma and its impact on

personality. The individual trauma consists of the blow of mind of a person due to the sudden

shock of the personal worst experience. Some incidences, such as disease, injury, or social

experiences, shock the mind, and thus, a blow takes place so suddenly that it stores in the

individual’s mind. This blow keeps reminding the individual regarding that particular incident,

which leaves a psychological impact on the individual. In such shocking scenarios, the blow either

guides the person to react immediately, or the situation does not give a chance to react

appropriately. Thus, the mind recalls the event to remind the defence mechanism, which the

individual could take during that scenario. This process keeps on disturbing the person. However,

trauma is not only for the worst shocks; it can be for the small incidences . For example, if the

student is getting bullied and sudden incidents kept him shocked and unable to respond, later, the

student can feel distressed and wrong for not reacting in that particular situation.

Erikson (1994) further highlighted that the trauma does not only affect the personality, but

also it leaves the worst impact on the social life of the respective individual and, in some cases,

also leaves a profound effect on the attached people . Thus, the trauma damages the bond or the

social interaction of an individual with others in the community. People start feeling unsafe from

the victim and thus avoiding talking to the traumatised individual. Erikson also explained the

collective trauma as the damage to the social fabric and the group of people. The collective trauma

occurs during the wartime scenarios, social evils, and the terror attacks in which society gets
 20

affected by the incident. Collective trauma does not affect one or two persons; instead, it harms

the entire society. It occurs due to some significant political decisions or world level games. For

example, the 9/11, Afghan war, Kashmir issue, Iraq invasion, Palestinian genocide, and other such

incidences left the worst impact on the lives of Muslims . The people have experienced the worst

scenarios of their lives, and therefore, they get depressed and traumatised. The collective trauma

is a threat to the respective society where the people are profoundly affected by multiple incidences

and take a long time to recover from their psychological illness.

2.2 Models of Trauma

Literature helps in answering the questions that help handle problems like trauma . As

Johnson (1998), in his article “Literary research and interdisciplinarity,” states that during the

emergence of psychoanalytic theory, Freud mostly mentioned literary examples. In recent

researches, thinkers took help from literature to socially recognise the problems relating to

trauma, hunt for its features, and investigate its consequences. Caruth and Feldman stated literature

an ultimate source for the depiction of trauma. Definition of trauma given by Caruth in 1996

demonstrates the importance of trauma that is incorporated with literature, according to her trauma

is sort of an injury that expresses itself by telling some truth that is not known . She also put up

with an undeniable fact that literature and trauma both have shared aims as they both are related

to the internal mind of a human being. Therefore different theoretical models are presented by

theorists to study trauma in literature.

 21

Caruth is known to have founded the field of literary trauma studies . She wrote Trauma:

Explorations in Memory (1995) and Unclaimed Experience Trauma, Narrative, and History

(1996). In these writings, she mapped out the models of psychoanalytic theories as provided by

Freud and discussed trauma theory as her central interest.

Keeping in mind the model of Caruth, investigation of the text will be carried out for all

the questions that have to be answered. Caruth’s Theory from Trauma: Explorations in Memory

(1995) and Unclaimed Experience: Trauma, Narrative, and History (1996) will be applied to

Nadeem Aslam’s text “The Blind man’s Garden.” According to Caruth’s theory, the trauma is a

sudden shock to the mind of the individual or the community, for which they are not prepared .

After such incidents or the situation, the survivors remain affected, and their mind keeps on

recalling them about the incident. The survivors experience the flashbacks of the incidents and

think about what they could perform to react at that time. There are two types of individuals who

ignore the flashbacks of mind and engage them in different activities .

On the other hand, some people get stuck to such scenarios. They keep on thinking about

the incidence after a lapse of some time. Caruth explained that such trauma flashbacks are due to

the unusual human experiences in different situations . Either wartime or the terrorist attacks, these

situations are not conventional in society, and therefore, the human mind never remains ready for

such experiences. By sudden changes in the scenario and facing unexpected shocks, the mind

leaves powerful influence over the reactions and thinking patterns of the survivors .
 22

Caruth (1995) further asserted that in some situations, people experience double trauma. It

occurs due to the severe social issues or the worst life experiences . For example, if the person

evidences the killing or the murder of an individual as an eye witness, he or she may experience

double trauma. Such trauma occurs because paradoxically, the person has witnessed the trauma of

other’s deaths and grief and so he/she may experience the trauma of other’s grief, pain, and death

along with the trauma of survival. Thus, Caruth concludes that the flashbacks, haunting the

survivors of trauma, are real histories that the survivors are telling, and their listeners are people

who did not witness the incident.

Erikson’s (1994) contribution to trauma-related studies is of great significance. He

presented the research work in different years, which helps recognize personal and public trauma.

According to him, these both can happen simultaneously. The latter originated from the former.

He also highlights the impact of trauma on society as well as individuals . He depicts how an

occasion of trauma not just has its impact on the people who encounter it yet also traumatize those

who are not firsthand viewers of the incident. LaCapra (2001) also discussed trauma fiction and

its importance in the linguistics. The trauma fictions are the source to understand how people get

affected by the worst scenarios and war times. However, the trauma is not always due to war, but

any shocking incidents can cause it. LaCapra (2001) further asserted that there is a proper sequence

of the trauma fiction, according to which the author faces a non-linear start-up, middle point, and

closure. The non-linear pattern is followed through the flashbacks of the incident, reflecting

significant spatial and temporal gaps when the characters are transported back to the past when

they experienced the shock. Balaev (2008) talked about literary trauma theory and inspected the
 23

leading psychological models of trauma. She acquainted new methodologies with study trauma in

literature. She discussed the role of a district in trauma and its impact on the protagonist . This

research examines the prevailing psychology model of trauma in literary criticism, primarily

intergenerational trauma theory, introducing alternative approaches for analysis of trauma in

literature, including place theory. Several other authors (Wijngaarden, 2008) have also highlighted

the 9/11 incident in their research papers and thesis . Wijngaarden highlighted the Muslim

presentation in the fiction and films after the 9/11 incident. Many fiction movies and novels

represented Muslims as terrorists, which does not portray real Muslims. The media does not

portray the actual Muslims; instead, they have created a false presentation of the Islam religion to

promote Islamophobia and a terror war between the East and West. It was part of the planning of

superpowers to mediate Islamophobia through media, fiction, and telefilms and spread hater

amongst all. After 9/11, several authors (Poire & Burgoon, 1996; Yim, 2019; Sohn & Lariscy,

2015) have published their literature regarding the social and psychological impact of the US

policies and wrong portraying of Muslims by the non-Muslims.

Writing something requires a complete command over the linguistics approach, and

therefore, the writers are required to follow the linguistic ruling whenever presenting something

to their readers. Usually, the write up is done in a sequence, where the traditional start-up, middle-

point, and ending points are adjusted for the readers. However, when analysing the trauma-related

novels or the stories, the writing does not follow the traditional writing patterns . There is no proper

introduction or the ending points; instead, it is based on the repetition of the imaginaries and the

visions, and the endpoints are different from the usual novels . Anne Whitehead (2004) highlighted
 24

this difference through the research and the systematic review of the literature about the impact of

post-colonialism, postmodernism, and the remnants on the trauma survivors . The author

(Whitehead, 2004) highlighted that trauma stories are not like ordinary family stories; instead, it

is the reflection of how the people experience traumatic situations and how it becomes part of their

flashbacks. Through such discussion of the personal experiences of the character, the author aims

to let people experience how the flashbacks of the shocks are painful and how it leads to the

traumatic condition of the characters. Thus, the base of trauma fiction lies in the way by which the

character recovered from the trauma. It establishes the acknowledgement of the denied and

forgotten memories. This sort of fictional writing is different from general linguistics. The

flashbacks of visions evoke from unfortunate incidents repeatedly. They got stuck in mind and

raised several questions. (Whitehead, 2004).

LaCapra (2001) also discussed trauma fiction and its importance in the linguistics . The

trauma fictions are the source to understand how people get affected by the worst scenarios and

war times. However, the trauma is not always caused due to war, but any shocking incidents can

cause it. Even a sudden accident, death of a loved one, bullying, or injury can cause trauma.

Several authors have highlighted the traumatic situations via their characters and analysis of the

different scenarios. Thus, LaCapra (2001) highlighted that trauma fictions are not like traditional

literature; instead, it is developed in a non-linear pattern. The reason behind this non-linear pattern

is the repetition of the incidences or sequences as flashbacks or recalling of the shocking incident .

The traditional literature consists of the proper closure, through which the reader gets it easy to

reach after analysing the entire novel. However, in trauma fiction, the closure is non-linear because
 25

it reflects one’s disturbed life due to a shock or the incident. Thus, traumatic narratives do not offer

linear closure. The non-conventional plotting of the trauma fiction leaves an insightful impact on

the reader, who then gets able to feel the experiences of the character and understand the impact

of disturbing flashbacks on the victim’s life.

Thus, the LaCapra (2001) asserted that there is a proper sequence of the trauma fiction,

according to which the author faces a non-linear start-up, middle point, and closure. The non-linear

pattern is followed through the flashbacks of the incident, reflecting vast spatial and temporal gaps

when the characters are transported back to the past when they experienced the shock . However,

in some fiction, the victim attempts reconnection to a healthy life and try hard to get rid of the

flashbacks of the shocking incident to end up the traumatic feelings . However, flashbacks of the

past incidents force them to feel as they are in the moment of trauma. Thus, contributing to the

great disturbance in the healthy life of the victim and keeps him/her unable to perform any task

with higher efficiency.

The non-linear plot of trauma fiction is constructed with glimpses and flashbacks of the

traumatic incident from the past. Whitehead (2004) explained this plotting of trauma fiction.

According to the study (Whitehead, 2004), the repetition is the inherent ambivalent act of the

trauma which force the victim to keep on remembering and feeling the trauma incident. The shock

causing the distress gets stuck to the mind, and the person remains unable to come out of that

traumatic phase. Thus, the best way to write trauma fiction is to use the same condition in writing.

Repetition and flashbacks of the trauma incident cause distress and disturbance to the character,

and that should be felt as a reader. LaCapra explained it as a voice hovering between active and
 26

passive mode. The active mode is associated with the present situation, whereas the trauma victim

never remains in the active mode all the time; instead, he/she faces a passive mode, according to

which he/she feels the glimpses of his trauma incident. LaCapra called this indirect passive mode

as “ErlebteRede” (LaCapra, 2001, p. 196). Thus, according to LaCapra, the mixing of active and

passive modes in writing is the best way to write the trauma literature. As stated;

“for representing or writing trauma, especially in cases in which the narrator is empathically
unsettled and able to judge or even predicate only in a hesitant, tentative fashion” (LaCapra,
2010, p. 197).

However, when comparing the writing pattern to the political or social matters related to

literature, then there exists a considerable difference. The trauma fiction is written in a non-linear

format, whereas the ethical and political matters are being explained in a linear pattern to highlight

the absolute truth with facts and shreds of evidence. Also, the trauma fiction includes the middle

voice as the passive mode, which connects the reader to the indecision, danger, and honesty of the

story (LaCapra, 2010). Keeping in view the fact that the traditional models of narration fail to

present trauma suddenly and that the narratives of trauma enjoy certain exclusive traits, it is worth

saying that the use of such unfamiliar modes to portray trauma is in line with the unusual nature

of the very incident of trauma itself.

2.3 Literature about Trauma

Trauma is connected with literature from its rise. Freud followed literature while propping

theories about trauma, and many other researchers have also attempted to study trauma and its

effects on social and individual life. Bouson, in her book Quiet as it’s Kept: Shame, Trauma, and

Race in the Novels of Toni Morrison (2000), studies about the disgrace and trauma that is
 27

noticeable in the fiction composed by Toni Morrison. She sequentially dissects the trauma and

shame in this book that is shaped by Morrison. For this purpose, she applied the hypotheses of

Leon Wurmser, Donald Nathanson, and Judith Lewis Herman . The content finely demonstrates

the racial disgrace and self-loathing trauma as the central point of discussion of the book.

Henke, a professor of literary studies, is a psychoanalytic critic with interest in

autobiographical testimony and script therapy. In a study, Shattered Subjects: Trauma and

Testimony in Women’s Life (2000), she examines the case histories of six 20th-century women

creators who experienced physical and psychological trauma. This book is proof that women

often use writing to heal the wounds of psychological trauma. The literary testimonies of

Colette, Hilda Doolittle, Anais Nin, Janet Frame, Audre Lorde, and Sylvia Fraser provide

startling evidence of PTSD precipitated by rape, incest, childhood sexual abuse, grief,

unwanted pregnancy, pregnancy loss, or severe illness. Their writings highlight the

methods of endurance and mending. Henk analysed the traumatic narrative as the focal

point of a large body of autobiographical practice representing the genre of narrative

recovery. Shattered subjects suggest that the powerful medium of written

autobiographical testimony may allow the resolution or reconfiguration of the most

emotionally distressing experiences.

Kabir (2005) directed a general investigation of south Asian, African, and Middle East’s

female writers about the trauma faced by people of sub-continent after partition, in her paper. She,

in Gender, Memory, and Trauma, women’s Novel on Partition of India (2005), discussed the

collective trauma of partition and traced works of female writers to examine how the position of a
 28

person in the society affected the way s/he perceives trauma. She proposes that these novels are

similar to accounts of holocaust survivors and provides a way to mourn and reconcile the trauma

with the help of narrative.

Balaev (2008) talked about literary trauma theory and inspected the leading psychological

models of trauma. She acquainted new methodologies with study trauma in literature. She

discussed the role of a district in trauma and its impact on the protagonist. This research examines

the prevailing psychology model of trauma in literary criticism, primarily intergenerational trauma

theory, introducing alternative approaches for analysis of trauma in literature, including place

theory. This research breaks down the capacity of the traumatised protagonist in fiction and

discusses the influence of place in the reformulation of the self.

Visser (2011) in Trauma Theory and Postcolonial Literary Studies, gives his perceptive on

trauma and post colonisation. In his research, he represents the central notions of cultural trauma

theory to give a clear understanding of issues that prevail in trauma studies and postcolonial literary

studies. In the same year (2011), Forter writes about ‘punctual and non-punctual’ trauma model.

In his work, he develops a theory that stated the idea of ‘signification trauma.’ His new model is

applied to colonial trauma. However, instead of focusing on already presented models, he presents

the conflicts between psychological and social issues that lead to trauma and studies cultural,

social, and political powers in the postcolonial backdrop to represents trauma. His work ‘Gender,

Race, and Mourning in American Modernism’ examine the causes of historical and political

trauma in colonial societies with the help of modernist fiction. Forter uses proper tactics to analyse

the novels. He narrates the traumatic history of oppressed people and their struggle against

authorities, thus representing the societal and historical traumas in postcolonial fiction.
 29

Balaev, in 2012, also discusses ‘The Nature of Trauma in American Novels.’ In her work,

she tries to liberate trauma from the dominion of Freud. She puts the pluralistic approach forward

in trauma literary theory, according to which trauma is not merely a rupture in mind; it is affected

by its surroundings. Narrating a traumatic experience leads to the identification as well as the

solution to the problem. Her view of narrating a traumatic experience involves remembering,

which can be influenced by other contributing factors as she takes it as a selective interpretation

rather than a straight recalling of the past events. To present her view, she gave an analysis of four

American novels. In this analysis, she discovers the unique powers of traumatic individuals that

were arisen by the trauma they were facing. Thus, she stresses the effects of trauma dependent on

the setting of surroundings and states

‘Places provide a conceptual framework in which emotional responses occur.’

The basic theory of trauma is continuously developing, along with it, several new models

of trauma are also emerging. Feminist trauma theories, social and cultural trauma theories, and

historical trauma theories inspect the relation of trauma with society and literature. In the latest

work of Caruth, Literature in the Ashes of History (2014), she discusses trauma as a history. In

this work, she emphasises the loss of history, its disappearance. She claims that historians should

record this passing history, which is the traumas of living people by offering thoughtful, keen

analysis of literary and theoretical texts. This work of Caruth is not directly related to traditional

trauma theory; instead, it is the criticism of comparative literature, which has its basis in

deconstruction and psychoanalysis. This work of Caruth has two parts. The first part analyses the

texts that depict the coming history of the twentieth and twenty-first century. The second part is

an analysis of the texts that communicate the coming history after the end of ongoing history.
 30

The three chapters in the second part anticipate about the history of the current era that is itself

declining.

Hart (2015) writes, ‘The Poetics of Otherness: War, Trauma, and Literature.’ This book is

a model to study about the trauma of otherness. The keen analysis of several texts, their language,

approach, and translations reveal the truth of ‘other’ spaces and open the minds of readers to never

addressed facts and ideas. This book explores how literature throws light on violence, war, and

trauma of otherness, as it not only shakes reading and writings but also affects the way people live.

The book gives the accounts of first and second world wars that how these wars engulfed the peace

of the world. The misunderstanding of the differences between people from different ethnic

backgrounds leads to violence and killing. He illustrates otherness due to cultural differences that

result in war, violence, and trauma and claims that war, violence, and trauma adores the poetics of

otherness.

Revisiting India’s Partition: New Essays on Memory, Culture, and Politics (2016) provides

an overview of the partition of sub-continent. In this book, nineteen essays by different writers

portray the trauma of savage fierceness that disturbs the survivors and their grandchildren until

now. Each writer contributes to recent changes in the region of South Asia, throwing light on the

trauma of displacement as well as colonization, post-colonization, and economic changes. The

book plea for help from the world for the Asian region’s people, who are suffering from the trauma

of memory, displacement and violence.

Recently in 2020, Bond and Craps, both lecturer in English literature in Westminister and

Ghent university respectively, provides a new critical idiom for trauma. In their work, they give a

detailed history of trauma, its present stage and finally, the anticipated future of trauma theory.

Starting from the nineteenth century to present days, they give the origin of hysteria, moving
 31

towards the war trauma and analysing the epoch when the trauma was emerging from medical to

the literary field and as a final point considering the contemporary state as the age of trauma. They

also inspect the cultural and historical milieus of the term by marking out the origins of literary

trauma theory and acquainting the readers with critical thinkers in the field. In the third section,

they provide the main theories of trauma that help in determining significant concerns and tensions

in the cultural perspective. As a final verdict, they summarise and evaluate the latest criticism and

reconsiderations of cultural trauma research.

2.4 Critical Analysis on Aslam’s “The Blind Man’s Garden”

The theme and idea of TBMG successfully took hold of the attention of readers, intellects,

and critics. Many intellects celebrate this piece of fiction throughout the world as it is one of the

very few pieces of fiction that depicts the condition of Pakistan in a unique way after the 9/11

incident. The incident of 9/11 made history, as after this incident there started a war on terror, and

America started to invade other countries that changed the whole politics of the world . The novel

represents the trauma of Pakistani that the bear while this invasion by America, as the military

attacks by the US severely damaged the physical, emotional as well as social well-being of not

only human beings but also the environment. The novel is about the trauma of civilians that they

faced during the military operations. These operations can be useful for militants, but they can act

as a threat to civilians and nature. (Pirzadah, 2018). So the civilians there went through a severe

trauma that affects their whole life. Aslam handled the military involvement in Afghanistan very

artistically. He foregrounds slow and systemic violence, habitat diminishment, and ecosystem

degradation while protecting the spirit of the earth and humanity . (Ivanchikova 2017). He
 32

explained the geological turn in his novel by portraying the trauma of war that Pakistani people

went through.

Several works tried to interpret TBMG from different perspectives. One such work is by a

researcher Abdelmoneim who emphasised the permissiveness of Muslim characters in TBMG .

She tried to focus on the soft, kind, and tolerant image of Muslims as presented by Aslam in his

work. In her work, she focused on the fact that how Aslam very artistically articulated the situation

of two Muslim countries without taking “sides.” The world after 9/11 shifted its view of Muslims,

especially Asian Muslims; she argued in her work that how Aslam, in his novel, portrayed calm

and modest Muslims fenced in the characters of Mikal, Jeo, and Rohan. He tried to reconstruct the

shattered image of Pakistani and Afghani Muslims, fulfilling his duty as an artist by presenting the

reality of the situation. He tried to convey the other side of the story, which is often neglected

while talking about the attacks of 9/11. Hence, Aslam is trying to change the world narrative about

Muslims, created by the west as this narrative put even those people in distress who are above

suspicion.

Several other authors (Wijngaarden, 2008) have also highlighted the 9/11 incident in their

research papers and thesis. Wijngaarden highlighted the Muslim presentation in the fiction and

films after the 9/11 incident. Several American movies and fiction novels represent Muslims as

terrorists or violent people. This portrayal of Muslims is not factual. As stated by the Wijngaarden

in her thesis;

“TBMG does not simply portray Muslims as the religious fanatics and dangerous terrorists that

the conservative media showed American viewers after 9/11” (Wijngaarden 50) .
 33

The author (Wijngaarden, 2008) highlighted that the media does not portray the actual

Muslims; instead, they have created a false presentation of the Islam religion to promote

Islamophobia and a terror war between the East and West. It was part of the planning of

superpowers to mediate Islamophobia through media, fiction, and telefilms and spread hater

amongst all. Aslam also critiques such a presentation of Muslims in the international media and

argues that it does not compartmentalise Muslims in any way. Wijngaarden also supports the

Aslam’s argument with the statement;

“The novel features a variety of Muslim characters, emphasising their humanity and

vulnerability” (Wijngaarden 48).

After 9/11, several authors (Poire & Burgoon, 1996; Yim, 2019; Sohn & Lariscy, 2015)

have published their literature regarding the social and psychological impact of the US policies

and wrong portraying of Muslims by the non-Muslims. Floyd & Burgoon (1999) text analysis

revealed that the character Changez of the novel ‘The Reluctant Fundamentalist,’ who experienced

a tremendous social and psychological change after the incident of 9/11, is helpful to analyse how

the social behaviours have been changed after the terror incidents. The Americans, the superpower,

the community has been discriminating against minorities, especially Muslims, which left the

worst impact on the communities in minorities. The character ‘Changez’ is the protagonist of the

novel, who belonged to Pakistan and then migrated to the United States of American . He was

pleased to live his life as a young New Yorker. His background with the Pakistani culture, Islam

as religion and other social factors do not match to the American culture and Christianity. Through

he struggled hard to meet all social requirements to be a New Yorker and being respected as the
 34

American, but the social factors cannot be separated from the personality . However, after the

incident of 9/11, the people started behaving differently. His girlfriend and other companions were

not friendly to him any more; instead, they started relating him with the Muslims and Taliban . His

expectations were profoundly violated through ignorance and hater . He was traumatised by the

sudden change in the behaviour of all. His co-workers became aggressive at him and started

blaming him and his cultural belonging for all the destruction in the United States and the

increasing terrorism all across the world. In such a situation, he had enough money in his account,

and thus, he expected that people must accept him for who he is in New York and not for who he

was in Lahore, Pakistan. He realised that America and his friends had betrayed him. This betrayal

led to the severe psychological impact on Changez, and his trauma led him towards the hater for

the Americans and all other non-Muslims, who portray the Muslims negatively. Changez became

anti-American and started propagating the idea of ‘disengagement’ of Pakistan (East) from

America (West). He also quit his job there, returns to Pakistan and became anti-American. This

behaviour of Changez reflects that how a single incident changes the entire life because the trauma

and the shock of that particular time do not let the individual forget the violation of his

expectancies. The same is happening with several other Muslims in the United States and other

western regions.

Aslam, through his novel “The Blind Man’s Garden (TBMG),” also aims to highlight the

same situation that how the 9/11 incident made all Muslims terrorists in the sight of the western

region.
 35

Aslam’s novel “The Blind Man’s Garden” is also a reflection of how the Muslims have

faced discrimination and demonisation in the United States and other western countries . Aslam’s

narrative brings the well-rounded and individualised characters that had faced severe trauma due

to the war and terror after 9/11. In deconstructing the derogated Muslim identity, the Aslam’s

fiction critiques the orientalist discourses of the western nation . The literature TBMG highlights

that Muslims have no relation to terrorism, and they are, by no means, socially unethical . On the

contrary, Muslims are kind and hospitable due to their religious guidance and pure hearts . The

Islamophobia is created by western media and their leaders to create hate against the Eastern world,

particularly Muslims. On the contrary, terrorism in the Eastern world is due to the American war

and their threatening behaviour towards Iraqis, Afghans, and the Taliban . The American war is

leaving marks on the countries, which had not been involved in any terror attack . Thus, the modern

nations have been facing significant traumatised situations, after which they have just hater for

non-Muslims, and therefore, they become part of the anti-American movements. Wijngaarden

stated;

“Humanises the ‘others,’ giving them a face and thus enabling the reader to recognise their

suffering and losses as well” (Wijngaarden 49).

2.5 Theoretical Framework

2.5.1 Theories by Caruth

Cathy Caruth's theories are the primary theories in the field of literary trauma studies. She

is the developer of this field and wrote Trauma: Explorations in Memory (1995) and Unclaimed

Experience: Trauma, Narrative, and History (1996). Caruth’s (1996) concept of trauma is applied
 36

in this research to achieve the objectives of this study. According to her, trauma is ‘an

overwhelming’ incident faced by a victim which brings a sudden change in the individual. As a

result of this sudden change, the traumatic individual becomes numb and cannot react at the

moment. However, memories of these incidents haunt the victim throughout his life in the form of

flashbacks, hallucinations, and dreams. These incidents prove to be traumatic as the victim

becomes unable to comprehend them and react accordingly. Caruth also gave another concept for

traumatic beings, according to which the victim of such traumatic incidents when sees violence

faces a ‘double wound’. By this, she means a person going through some trauma faces two types

of traumas. He not only faces the trauma because he is a witness but also sees his own life as

trauma. The flashbacks of traumatic memories put him in regret of his survival, thus he anticipates

his persistence a trauma.

Caruth (1996) asserts that after a traumatic incident victim is unable to represent the trauma

in words, as such incidents seriously affect the mind of the victim. Trauma destroys the personality

of the victim and gives irreversible damages to mental health. The traumatic individual becomes

unable to describe his condition in words but keeps the event in his mind that continuously haunts

him in the form of memories, dreams, visions of the incident, and hallucinations. Caruth claims

that traumatic events are external events that irreversibly change an individual internally. These

events keep haunting the victim on the inside and this absent presence of trauma combines with

the memory to cause mental breakdowns in the victim. He tries to understand the situation but fails

in comprehending it, thus resulting in ‘unspeakability’. Moreover, she also states that people

around the world are implicated in each other’s traumas, thus, representing individual trauma as a

base to collective traumas of society. The work of Caruth will play an essential role in investigating

the trauma in the characters of The Blind man’s Garden.

 37

2.5.2 Erikson’s Notion of Trauma

Erikson was an American sociologist who characterized trauma (1994) as a wound that

seizes the brain of the individual experiencing trauma. According to him, a person going through

trauma cannot adapt to it until the traumatic mishaps experience with him through his memories

again and again. That is to say; he remains upset from the incident until he came in peaceful terms

with it. He likewise laid out the indications which happen in an injured individual. He asserts that

a person suffering from trauma has plenty of varied sentiments . He feels upset and nervous.

Fretfulness is evident in his conduct. At specific situations, he becomes numb or blank. He

considers people around him cynical, and he remains devastated . He creates trust issues, and no

one appears to him as his real source of purgation.

Erikson is the person who highlighted personal and public trauma. According to him, these

both can happen simultaneously. The latter originated from the former. He also highlights the

impact of trauma on society as well as individuals. He depicts how an occasion of trauma not just

has its impact on the people who encounter it yet also traumatizes those who are not firsthand

viewers of the incident. He clarifies that when traumatized people put it in the picture, in front of

those who were absent at the site, they too develop the indication of trauma, although not with the

same power. So, listeners of a traumatic record may likewise get damaged by the occurrence and

can be viewed as secondary causalities.

 38

For Erikson, trauma is a shock that creates unresponsiveness, nervousness, and numbness

in the victim. According to him, trauma damages society and causes discomfort in it. He (1994)

gave a detailed account of collective trauma where he defines it as a trauma that gives a blow to

the social tissue of the society. As a result of such trauma, people start developing different feelings

between them. They either become unite or start distrusting each other. People who relate

themselves with each other become united and create a bond of oneness against the group whom

they think their enemy and cause of their misfortune. Erikson’s model (1996) of trauma will help

in tracing collective trauma in Pakistani society, given the data from TBMG.

2.5.3 Whitehead’s Proposal of Trauma Fiction

Whitehead (2004) in her book Trauma Fiction gave the key qualities of trauma narrative.

According to her trauma narrative is not merely concerned with the recollections of painful

distressing events, it is concerned with the way trauma is delivered and the reasons for its

remembrance. She, in her text, argues about the techniques with which trauma fiction is written

and has an effect on its readers. She gave several narrative techniques that are present in trauma

fiction and help it in becoming a powerful tool to convey traumatic events. Intertextuality, memory

places, repetition, a hovering voice in narrative, fantastic, and choiceless choices are the main

narrative techniques that are used in her text to convey the meaning of trauma fiction. According

to her intertextuality in a text causes repetition of the events, thus creating flashbacks of memories.

The writer repeats the events and images from the previously happened incidents that are described

in the fiction. It leads to the returning of memory of the traumatic event. The repetition then affects

the chronology of the text and thus resulting in a disseminated broken narrative. Such narrative

hovers between the past and present. This is another characteristic of trauma fiction described by.

Whitehead. She also discussed the memory place, by which she means that traumatic individuals
 39

have a connection with the place where they face traumatic events. Whenever they visit that place

traumatic events make flashbacks from their memories thus creating distress in them. She also

gave the idea of choiceless choice, which states that the traumatic individual in haste or

unintentionally make such decisions that lead to trauma. This work will play a vital role in proving

the selected text a trauma fiction.

Thus, the current study will use the Caruth’s, Erikson’s and Whitehead’s theories and the

literature of Aslam TBMG to analyze how the selected fiction about 9/11 is a trauma fiction and

contributes in tracing the trauma amongst the Pakistanis, and also how they assist in making it the

collective trauma of society.

Conclusion

Conclusively, the chapter presents the review of already published literature to highlight

the study gap and the significance of the current study in the respective field. The review revealed

that Caruth wrote Trauma: Explorations in Memory (1995) and Unclaimed Experience Trauma,

Narrative, and History (1996) to map out the models of psychoanalytic theories as provided by

Freud, and discussed trauma theory as her main interest. According to Caruth’s theory, the trauma

is a sudden shock to the mind of the individual or the community, for which they are not prepared.

Caruth (1995) further asserted that in some situations, people experience double trauma. Erikson

was an American sociologist who characterized trauma (1994) as a wound that seizes the brain of

the individual experiencing trauma. Erikson is the person who recognised between personal and

public trauma. However, the author (Whitehead, 2004) highlighted that trauma stories are not like

typical family stories; instead, it is the reflection of how the people experience traumatic situations

and how it becomes part of their flashbacks. Through such discussion of the personal experiences

of the character, the author aims to let people experience how the flashbacks of the shocks are
 40

painful and how it leads to the traumatic condition of the characters. The present study will now

follow the Caruth Theory (1996), Erikson’s Theory (1994), and Whitehead’s theory (2004) to

analyze the impact of war trauma on the People and recurrence of the trauma through fiction

reading.
 41

CHAPTER 3

3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 Introduction

The research aims to investigate distressing incidents and traumatized behaviour of main

characters in the selected novel using frameworks given by Caruth (1996), and attempts to find

out if an individual’s trauma can recur as societal trauma by applying Erikson’s (1994) framework

as well as proving the selected piece of fiction as a trauma fiction with the help of Whitehead’s

(2004) theory. The selected fiction is used as the basis of this research. To attain the objectives of

this study, the researcher uses an appropriate research model. The research process was completed

in two stages; in the first stage, the theoretical framework was developed via review of already

published literature and theories, in the second stage the selected theories were applied on the

selected fiction to understand the distress and recur of trauma as a societal blow to the minds of

individuals as well as to prove the text as a trauma fiction. This section of the study now presents

how the data was collected and what theoretical framework had been used in the study.

3.2 Research Model

Fairclough’s (1992) theory was mainly established on Halliday’s Functional Grammar

decent social theories in France, which supported the CDA and analyzed the textual samples . The

author aimed to analyze several types of textual samples, such as news and media discourse, to

evaluate how the social factors affect the behaviours . The author (Fairclough, 1992) presented a

three-dimensional framework to study the complex social and political phenomena and explore
 42

the power relations and ideological implications through linguistic analysis. Fairclough (2011)

continued his research regarding Critical discourse analysis via his introduced research model and

focused on the practical reasoning of the argument in the corpus of 13 policy-making texts. The

findings revealed that the instrument of control symbolizes the power in the society, where the

leverages are given to the people, belonging to the same culture and community . Saghaye-Biria

(2012) further extended the research to evaluate the policies against the Muslims of the United

States and used congressional hearing held on March 10, 2011, for the CDA . The findings of the

study revealed that culture and social significance matters a lot for a better lifestyle and social

well-being. The people in a region, with the same culture and religion, are more protected than the

immigrants or individuals with other cultures and religions (Izadi & Saghaye-Biria, 2007).

Figure 1 Textual Analysis for the Social Analysis (Henderson, 2005)

 43

Generally, there are six kinds of processes: material process, verbal process, relational

process, behavioural process, mental process, and existential process . The difference in the

processes is that they contain different ideological meanings . The process of the sentence can be

changed once the participants or the situations are altered. In general, it is the ideology that decides

the process or the transitivity. In functional grammar, classification is about the description or

definition of certain events or characters (Halliday, 1994). This kind of action mainly relies on the

choice or the selection of vocabulary by the speaker or writer . Since any language in the world is

not entirely objective, the classification of the vocabulary is more or less accompanied by personal

experiences and opinions. In other words, instead of a direct reflection of a thing’s fundamental

qualities, the classification of the discourse is more influenced by a person’s cognitive level and

ideological idea.

3.3 Research Paradigm

The research paradigm is used to check the research types and their impact on society in

the future. Through this layer, the research is classified according to three types; Realism,

Positivism, or Interpretivist. Realism supports the idea of reality and facts, regardless of the human

perception of the scientific approach. The research aims to investigate distressing incidents and

traumatized behaviour of main characters in the selected novel using frameworks given by Caruth,

and attempts to find out if a person’s trauma can recur as someone else’s trauma using the selected

fiction as its basis. Thus it follows the direct realism approach and analyzes the character of the

novel through the already published literature.

 44

Positivism is about the scientific knowledge obtained through the analysis, measurements, and

observations done through surveys, interviews, or poll processes . The current study is not going

to conduct scientific research through the interview, survey, or poll process, and therefore, it does

not follow the positivism approach. On the contrary, the entire study is based on ‘Caruth, Erikson,

and Whitehead’s Theories’ to analyze the distress in individuals and society as well as

characteristics of trauma in the concerning fiction.

Interpretivism is a form of criticism of the positivist approach via a review of already published

studies or reports, as well as analysis of the existing theory, literature, or study. The present study

follows the same type of research paradigm, which analyzes Nadeem Aslam’s “The Blind Man

Garden.” Also, the study applies a Fairclough’s 3D model to analyze further the character and

trauma impact on the individual and societies. Thus, the entire research process is based on the

literature approach and follows the Interpretivism approach.

3.4 Research Approach

It can be divided into two types; quantitative and qualitative. The approach helps the

researcher to understand how the research process will be completed and what strategies and

methods can be highly useful to attain the desired outcomes or to prove the hypothesis of the study

true or false. The two approaches qualitative and quantitative are also known as the inductive

approach and deductive approach of the study. When defining both approaches in detail, the

inductive approach begins with the observation of ideas and phenomena to generate a more

generalized view of the study. The inductive approach is a quantitative methodology used to

induce the result through observation or induction of proper surveys, interviews, focus group
 45

discussions, or polls. In other words, the inductive research or quantitative research does not rely

on existing theories. Instead, it is focused to perform new scientific research, through which new

data is collected and analyzed to induce or formulate new information . In this process, the

researcher develops some hypothesis and null hypothesis, which are then proved either true or

false through measurements. To further verify the findings, collected and derived data is compared

with the data published or formulated by other scholars . It enables the researcher to justify the

selection of sample size and the formulation of a new conclusion.

On the other hand, the deductive approach uses theories instead of developing a hypothesis and

null hypothesis. The deduce approach is simply a deduction of already existing literature,

framework, or ideas. Thus, the deductive approach is a qualitative approach in which the

researcher relies on the already existing laws, theoretical frameworks, and scholarly published

articles. Thus, the research analyzes the existing literature and justify or formulate theories or laws.

In simple words, the findings are induced after an in-depth analysis and observation of the

literature.

The research aims to investigate distressing incidents and traumatized behaviour of main

characters in the selected novel using frameworks given by Caruth, attempts to find out if a

person’s trauma can be societal and does the selected fiction has the properties of a trauma fiction

using the selected fiction as its basis. Therefore the study will use the qualitative approach.

Literature (novel), Naveed Aslam’s “The Blind Man’s Garden,” is being used to analyze how the

trauma affects the personalities or the societies and how it creates a bond in society . With this

approach, the study follows the qualitative research method in which the analysis of the already
 46

published novel through already existing theory and model is helpful to reach out at the answers

of research questions.

3.5 Research Purpose

The research aims to investigate distressing incidents and traumatized behaviour of main

characters, attempts to find out if a person’s trauma can be societal using the selected fiction as its

basis and proves the text as trauma fiction. The study looks at how far and how efficiently has the

text portrayed the impact of 9/11 consequences on Pakistani Muslims. The research features the

despicable circumstance in which the people faced the trauma via war and terrorism . In addition

to that, the research applied Erikson’s Theory to understand further how the trauma affects lives

and societies. This intellectual inquiry aims to see if a person’s trauma can turn into societal trauma

using the selected fiction as its basis. Furthermore, the study also tries to prove the selected fiction

as a trauma fiction by applying the theory of Whitehead (2004) on the selected piece of writing.

3.6 Sample Collection

The research aims to investigate distressing incidents and traumatized behaviour of main

characters in the selected novel using frameworks given by Caruth, and attempts to find out if a

person’s trauma can turn into societal trauma using the selected fiction as its basis . Thus, the

research process followed a qualitative methodology. In this research, data is collected from the

novel TBMG by a detailed investigation of the text. Twenty passages from textual data are

collected by using purposive or judgmental sampling under a non-random sampling technique to

investigate the trauma of main characters along with society and prove the text as a trauma fiction.
 47

The data collection was done in two stages. The first stage was based on the analysis and

understanding of the trauma and trauma-related theories. In this stage, the researcher studies the

concerned theories and recently published articles . The purpose of collecting already published

literature was to develop an appropriate theoretical framework for the study. During the second

stage, twenty passages were collected from the novel ‘The Blind Man’s Garden,’ and the findings

were noticed in a separate document. Finally, the collected data was further analyzed to infer

something and to answer the research questions of the study.

3.7 Arrangement of Data

The current study consists of five sections; introduction, literature review, methodology,

analysis, and conclusion. The introduction presents the study background, objective, and research

questions. It helps the reader to evaluate the purpose of the study and its significance in the

linguistics. The literature review presents the already existing literature of other scholars, which

helps develop the theoretical base of the study. Furthermore, it will include information on what

theoretical frameworks or theories have been added for the base of the study . The third section

presents the methodology details, which is helpful to analyze how the data was collected in the

research process, and the details regarding sample size, data research, data analysis, ethical

considerations, and limitations of the study. The fourth chapter will present the findings of the

study and will answer the research questions of the study. Finally, the conclusion section will

develop an authentic evaluation of the findings and will give a summary of the entire research in

precise form. It will derive all findings to the authentic conclusion, which will indicate how the

purpose of the research has been achieved.

 48

3.8 Ethical Measures

The research aims to investigate distressing incidents and traumatized behaviour of main

characters in the selected novel, attempts to find out if a person’s trauma can result in a societal

trauma, and proves the text as a trauma fiction by using the selected text as its basis. The purpose

of this study is to bring a positive change in society. During the research process, it was kept on

the focus that no personal information should be used unethically or illegally. No information from

the data was used for any illegal purpose for the bias . Instead, the findings were derived to highlight

the importance of extensive reading for the students, and let the academic institution know about

its importance in academics.

3.9 The validity of the Study

The study is based on literature analysis of the existing theories ‘Caruth Theory’ (1996),

‘Erikson Theory’ (1994), ‘Whitehead Theory’ (2004), and the novel ‘The Blind Man’s Garden.’

Due to lack of time, the study was only conducted with an analysis of only one literature piece

(novel). Therefore, the findings of the study may not be 100% valid . The findings of the study

were re-checked by the respected supervisor and the peers to analyze the mistakes within the

research process. Also, the feedback was taken from the respected supervisor regarding how to

strengthen the study findings.

3.10 Limitations of the study

Lack of time and limited sample size proved to be the limitations of the study. The research

process had to be completed within a few weeks, for which the only option was to keep the research
 49

focused on one literature piece only. The findings were then analyzed to answer the research

questions of the study.

3.11 Data Analysis

The data analysis is based on the selected aforementioned theoretical frameworks . Thus the

current study applies the ‘Caruth, Erikson and Whitehead’s Theory’ on the novel ‘The Blind Man’s

Garden’ to evaluate how violence on characters turned into trauma faced by the Muslims and

primarily Pakistani people due to invasions and attacks of the United States after 9/11 incident and

also the way this trauma then lead to a societal blow. The whole piece of selected fiction is then

analyzed to prove it a trauma fiction.

Conclusion

This chapter explains that the research process is based on the qualitative methodology,

according to which the already published literature of Nadeem Aslam “The Blind Man’s Garden”

has been analyzed. The chapter helped in setting a solid base to carry on research. It explained the

design, method, paradigm, approach, and process with which the study is conducted . It also

explained the methods of data collection and sampling techniques used to conduct the study .
 50

CHAPTER 4

4 DATA ANALYSIS

Introduction

In this chapter, the selected textual data from the novel TBMG is analyzed to find out how

characters in this novel are affected by trauma. The selected data is critically traced to find

traumatic incidents and happenings. This chapter has two sections. In the first section, twenty

passages from the selected fiction are analyzed for symptoms of trauma in individual characters

and then the society as a whole. This study tries to highlight events of trauma in the novel and also

aims to prove the text a trauma fiction, so characteristics of traumatic fiction are also marked out

in the selected passages. The second section of this chapter builds an argument based on the

analysis of selected fiction. It provides a detailed discussion of the traumatized characters and

argues about the ways their trauma converts into collective trauma in the selected piece of fiction.

This section also contributes to providing arguments to prove the selected fiction as a traumatic

fiction.

Kennedy says that wounds never heal, they can be concealed to maintain some sanity to

minimize sorrows, but they can never vanish. Wars also leave behind unhealable scars of fear,

sufferings, pain, and trauma. They leave behind survivors with sufferings and traumas of their

losses as quoted in reader’s digest (1932) war can never decide who is right but “who is left.” From

1996 onwards, the studies on trauma gained attention, especially with the works of Cathy Caruth,

Kai. T. Erikson and Ann Whitehead. Trauma has been presented in their trauma frameworks as an

inexpressible event. Caruth pioneered a psychoanalytic post-structural approach that classifies

 51

trauma as an unconscious issue that cannot be resolved, and it features contradictions of language

and experiences.

Caruth’s deconstructive criticism dominates literature’s trauma function and appeals

majority of the critics because of its irreversible psychological damages . Psychoanalytic theories

have been eclipsed in a few parts of the world, but trauma studies still appeal to literary critics—

the collective trauma framework of Kai. T. Erikson is also helpful to peep into the reality of

traumatized individuals, along with drawing comparisons between one part of the world with

another concerning collective trauma. Framework investigates memories, fictional narratives,

eternal sufferings along with the burden of moral responsibility not only individualistic but also

collective in nature. This research attempts to interrogate such symptoms in TBMG in the light of

collective trauma definition to ascertain community post-conflict social change, distress, post-

traumatic stress disorders, high-grade fear, sadness, depression, physical distress, emotional and

physical anxiety happening to characters of the novel after the western invasion. Trauma can be

personal as the things which traumatize may seem less significant to others . Individual

personalities, past experiences, personal set of values, beliefs, and one’s reaction causes variations

in the level of the trauma experience. Unique experiences may make it even special for individuals

concerning threatening caused integrated with horror, helplessness, and degrees of fear. For

military conflict zones the trauma may directly relate to direct reaction of military veterans, the

proximity of war zones, stress full condition which includes death, dead bodies and a brutal act of

killing, genocidal activities or bodies were torn apart as a result of the detonation

The text of the novel TBMG has been investigated for all possible options available in the

light of selected trauma frameworks. The selected text of TBMG has been judged for trauma and
 52

memory exploration. Caruth says that survivors face double trauma of the human tragedies they

faced one in the shape of lapses they were in and the other in the form of flashbacks of those worst

times and the injuries they bore. According to Caruth, trauma is something that is beyond the

regular happenings and experiences because it is sudden and unexpected as well. The death of the

beloved is one side of the trauma that is made even worst with the survival recipient of trauma –

paradoxical in nature. Constant haunting and flashbacks of other’s death make the living die again

and again. Caruth maintains it as the effect of double trauma faced by the survivors . Now the

survivors have to live with it every moment they walk and breath - the thoughtful questions of

“how to live?” or “how to get things to get going?”. Caruth’s framework is more relatable as the

actual characters who faced the wrath of the circumstances are capable of narrating those stories

without adding or subtracting incidences. An individual’s mind becomes a storage medium that

has accumulated all the flashbacks which haunt the double trauma of the survivors .

Storytellers are actual and real who witnessed everything; whereas, story listeners are not.

This research reveals how the writer has dealt with the traumatic narrative. The study also

introduced the key features of trauma theory frameworks of Cathy Caruth, Kai. T. Erikson and

Ann Whitehead. Often overlooked, these comparisons shed light on the inherent connection

between trauma theory and contemporary fiction works in both content and form. The study tries

to bring both literary texts and trauma theory together while exploring the contemporary trauma

incorporation by the novelist “Nadeem Aslam.” For this, twenty passages through purposive non-

random sampling have been selected.

Passage no. 01
 53

As Rohan makes………………………….in his house”. (S.I, c.1, p.5)

Context

The selected paragraph is taken from section (I) footnotes to defeat, chapter one, and page 5 of the

selected novel. This passage is the opening passage. Here Rohan, head of the family, is

visiting his garden and is recollecting the memories of his son, Jeo .

Analysis

In this passage, Rohan, head of the family, is thinking about his son Jeo’s childhood

memory. Rohan remembers a moment when Jeo was listening to a story. He was

bothered by the villain in a story so much that he began to tremble . Rohan was comforting

him by telling that villains never win at the end, but Jeo’s concern was the damage they

do to good people before their defeat. Here, trauma is evident in Rohan’s behavior as

according to Caruth (1992), a survivor of trauma has the memories from the past life, and

these memories continue to haunt the survivor. Here Rohan is also lost in his memories

and is delve in the past. The flames of burning candles seem to him as wounds . He is

ultimately haunted by the memory and thinks of each flame as an injury somewhere in

the house. Another trait of the person going through a trauma, according to the American

Psychiatric Association (APA) (2013), is de-realization of the moment. APA declares that

a person going through PTSD passes through a feeling of de-realization and does not

recognize the world, which he is living in, as reality. His mind processes it as illusory or

unreal. As here, Rohan is wholly soaked in what went before, and the memory slows him
 54

and eventually brings him to a standstill . Symptoms of PTSD are apparent in Rohan’s

behavior. His slowing down and then eventually becoming still is his de-realization, where

he ultimately lost the sense of his surroundings.

Passage no. 02

A follower of Allah…………………………his ear on. (S.I, C.10, P.102)

Context

This passage is taken from chapter 10 of the selected text. It is the first paragraph of this chapter.

Here Rohan just came to know about the death of his only son Jeo. He is probed in the memories

of his late wife, Sofia, and his late son, Jeo.

Analysis

In this passage, vulnerability and helplessness are manifested in the behavior of Rohan. He is weak

and helpless. He is disturbed by the death of his son and is wondering about his loss . According

to Erikson (1994), the people who have gone through some trauma feel that they cannot control

their doings. They sense themselves as defenceless beings who cannot govern situations of their

affairs and cannot rule their lives. The same is the situation with Rohan here. According to his

religion, everything that happens on earth has some sort of meaning. Due to this belief, he is not

able to comprehend the death of his son, which shows his traumatic behavior . Questioning the

death of his son, he is lost in the memories of Jeo. He remembers, before his birth, he used to listen

to his heartbeat in the womb of Sofia. This condition of Rohan also shows trauma in his behavior.
 55

Passage no. 03

She is shaking……………………… to the moment it stops. (S.I, C. 11, P. 108-109)

Context

This passage is taken from chapter 11 of the selected piece of writing. This passage shows the

condition of Jeo’s wife after his death, where she is personifying a toy car as Jeo and watches it

moving away from her.

Analysis

This passage shows the condition of Naheed, Jeo’s widow . This scene is just after the burial of

Jeo’s dead body. Naheed wanted to visit his grave but was not allowed to do so because of religious

restrictions. This restriction defies her closure. The need for closure is essential for a person as an

incident without closure can lead to trauma. Felma & Laub discussed this need for closure in their

testimony. They argue that the real trauma is not in just the memories, but its starting point arises

when an incident does not have an ending or does not completes. Caruth also follows this

description of trauma. In this scene, Naheed is trying to give an end to her sorrow and struggling.

She is doing so to cope with trauma. She grabbed a toy truck that belonged to Jeo, starts it, and

then places it on the floor. She stands there watching it going away from her and starts moving

along with it. She left it behind and moved out of the room like she does not want to see it stop.

Here she is personifying the toy truck as his husband and trying to avoid trauma and giving the

incident a closure that she was not able to do otherwise. Such as highlighted by the writers

mentioned above, Naheed is stuck in the incident of his husband’s death and is unable to come out
 56

from this event. She is not able to attain an end to it in her mind. This overwhelmed situation will

put her in a trauma that will haunt her through memories and flashbacks .

Passage no. 04

The exhaustion in the man………………..he was an escaped mental patient. (S.I, C.14, P.133)

Context

This passage is taken from section I, chapter 14 of the selected novel. In this chapter, Rohan meets

with a bird pardoner and came to know about his missing son and thinking about the rumours about

the missing persons.

Analysis

This passage is an accurate depiction of how an individual trauma affects society as a whole. Here

Rohan is meeting the bird pardoner whose son, Jeo, is missing. His exhaustion is similar to Basie’s

exhaustion, as his brother is also missing. He can detect his emptiness because he is also bearing

the same burden of losing his dear one. Here he is not only feeling connected with an individual

who is passing through trauma but also with other victims who are going through the same

condition. He has established a collective bond with them as when he feels any emptiness in

someone; his mind instantly gave him the flashes of those people who are going through the same

and are following the rumours about their sons. As Balaev (2014) mentioned about the people

going through collective trauma that they may be suffering from great commotions, but it can

unfold their similar inner identities and can empower their communal fragment as a society . Such

as it is visible here in the thoughts of Rohan, who has doomed himself, but when meeting with
 57

bird pardoner, his mind flashes back to him the people who are echoed by the rumours of the

mental disturbances, torture, anguish and even death of their loved ones .

Passage no. 05

Rohan walks to the gate……………what can be done to bring back Jeo.’ (S.I, C.14, P.134)

Context

This passage is taken from section I Footnotes to Defeat and Chapter 14 of the selected novel

where Rohan is having a conversation with bird pardoner, Abdul who is apologizing as he was not

able to keep his promises and telling him about his personal affairs related to his son who left him

to fight in Afghanistan. The bird snarer is travelling since then and found out that his son Jeo is a

prisoner in Afghanistan.

Analysis

Caruth (1996) proclaims that when trauma hits people, it employed them with each other’s

traumatic experiences, and they start to unite. Therefore Rohan, when he came to know that bird

pardoner’s fourteen-year-old son and his son shared the same names and might be the same fate,

realized that bird pardoner is also suffering from the same misery and pain that he is agonizing.

So Rohan gained some audacity to help Abdul and decided to help him by going to Peshawar

himself and talking to warlord so the bird pardoner might get his son back. He told him ‘I will go

to Peshawar with you,….‘We will meet the warlord’s people together and see what can be done

to bring back Jeo.’ This all happened because he got associated with the trauma of bird pardoner

and without giving a second thought he decided to help him. This passage from section ‘Footnotes
 58

to Defeat’ and Chapter 14 of the selected piece of writing portrays how an individual trauma of a

person helps him to associate himself with others and to realize their sufferings as their own.

Passage no. 06

‘We are the world’s seventh…………………..being held prisoner by them.’ (S.II, C. 18, P.192).

Context

This passage is taken from section II ‘The Blind Man’s Garden’ and chapter 18 of the selected

novel. Here an ex-military officer Kyra is making a plan of attacking a school with six other boys.

These boys are heads of houses in Ardent Spirit School, which was previously in co-possession of

Rohan and Kyra’s late brother and is now owned by Kyra, who is using it as a terrorism base.

Analysis

Erikson (1994) answered the question of how private trauma is different from societal trauma. He

termed trauma as a ‘blow to the mind’ which is so abrupt that the traumatic individual cannot

comprehend it. This trauma is so sudden that the person suffering it becomes indecisive and cannot

act in response. His mind cannot decide an appropriate way to resist. Furthermore, collective

trauma is blow to society; it attaches or detaches the society. It is so influencing that it ties knots

between victims. Such as in this scenario, an Ardent Spirit’s student, who is the brother of a

mujahid in U.S. custody, is furious about the helplessness of the Pakistani Government and

showing his anguish to his other fellows. He is pouring his own trauma to society, which ultimately

outbursts the emotions of people who are also going through some trauma . As a result, they

planned to attack a school so that they can put forward their demands to Americans by keeping the
 59

white people their hostages. Here another central point of collective trauma theory is visible as

these students and their head Kyra are showing a bond of oneness against their mutual foe, thus

developing a group which is sharing a common goal and on the other hand, is creating ill will

against those who are considered to be the reason of their ordeal.

Passage no. 07

Keeping his eye on the mosque……………….…..the sound lagging. (S.II, C.25, P.245)

Context

This paragraph is selected from section II, chapter 25, and page 245 of the novel to prove

the fiction a trauma fiction. Here Mikal is seen as a victim of ‘choiceless choice,’ murdering two

Americans without such intentions.

Analysis

Whitehead (2004), gives a concept of trauma fiction, according to which in a trauma

narrative characters undergo a choiceless choice, and makes terrible decisions. They have to make

such decisions because they do not have a choice. This choosing between two equally terrible

options leads to severe trauma of character. There are several incidents in the selected novel where

characters can be seen, making horrific decisions. The selected passage is also an example of such

an incident where Mikal sets free from American custody; two American soldiers are

accompanying him. Suddenly while moving towards the mosque, he felt the smell of sulfur, which

he misunderstands as the smell of bullet. In a moment, he made a choiceless choice and lifted the

pistol from America soldier’s hip holster and killed the American. He was also surprised by this

quick decision. He shot him two times, turned to the second American, and killed him as well.

These killings were not intentional; instead, he did so to save his life. It was either letting himself
 60

die or kill the Americans. There was no lesser evil decision, so he made an appalling decision,

which results in his longterm trauma as well as made him do things that affected his whole life,

even lead his never-ending imprisonment.

Passage no. 08

He is immediately relieved………………… occurred sometime yesterday. (S.I, C.9, P.100)

Context

This paragraph is taken from the first section, chapter 9, and page 100 to highlight how the

imagery of the Garden in TBMG is connected with the traumatic incidents. Here Rohan came back

to Heer, fruitlessly after searching for his son, Jeo, and entered his house, noticing every detail of

the garden.

Analysis

Whitehead, in ‘Trauma Fiction’ (2004), asserts that in a trauma fiction, there is a

relationship between landscapes and memory. She claims that some particular places form

repeated realization and become ‘memory places.’ These memory places connect themselves with

the incident of trauma, and thus, there develops a relationship between trauma and places. In

TBMG, there are certain places like the garden, Ardent Spirit, Heer, and the Christian school that

shows a connection with the trauma of characters. The garden is the most eminent place, with

which almost all characters residing in Heer has some connection. The novel opens with a scene

of Rohan in his garden delved in the memories of the past. It is the place that has secrets of Naheed

and Mikal; also, it is the place which is the reason for meeting between Rohan and bird pardoner.

In the selected passage, Rohan came back from Peshawar to Heer. He was searching for his son,

Jeo, in Peshawar, who went to Afghanistan to help Muslims there during WOT. However, before

Rohan's arrival, Jeo’s dead body was received by the family members. He enters the garden and
 61

starts examining the trees. The wires of bird pardoner to catch birds were taken down. This

happening was a relief for him, as he was not pleased with the caging of free souls, birds. He starts

inspecting the garden deeply and realizes that some tree trunks are broken off, which makes him

disheartened. He notices that the wounds are not fresh; the damage seemed to happen yesterday.

This incident symbolically represents the connection of the garden with the traumatic happenings

in the novel. The tree got harmed the same day Jeo’s dead body was received. This particular

incident shows how places become memory places in a trauma narrative, thus proving the selected

piece of writing a trauma fiction.

Passage no. 09

It is the first morning…………………. summoned him into her presence? (S.II, C.20, P.218)

Context

This paragraph is taken from page 218. It highlights how the memories of loved ones create trauma

in the mind of those who suffer their longing. Here Naheed is sitting on a rock studying a folktale

when suddenly she saw Mikal coming in the house and staring at her, which was impossible in

time and space boundaries because he was in the war in Afghanistan.

Analysis

Aslam in TBMG portrays trauma of people who are yearning the absence of their dear ones

and always delve in their memories. Mostly characters of the selected novel are often seen, going

astray in the memories of the past or dreams, showing post-traumatic stress. As stated by Caruth

(1995), the victim’s delayed response to his trauma is in the form of hallucinations, visions and

dreams. These symptoms of post-trauma are evident in Naheed’s character, who cannot express

her loss, but, in actuality, she is the one who is bearing the severe loss. Here Naheed is sitting and
 62

reading a folktale when Mikal comes to her. She was aware of the fact that it was not him. Still,

she communicates with him. She remembered her mother saying that if someone longs for you,

you left the place where you are to meet him. She starts walking towards the terrace and sees him

chasing her. Here Naheed is so traumatic that she is unable to differentiate actuality from dreams.

She communicates with the ghost of Mikal and thinks the situation as a real incident.

Passage no.10

She is relieved …………………………………………has to be kept secret. (S.II, C.22, P. 229).

Context

This paragraph is selected from section II, chapter 22 and page 229 to analyze the behavior

of Naheed as a traumatic character. Here her internal thought process is revealed. She is trying to

avoid going to the hospital, where her father in law, Rohan, went for his blindness inspection.

Analysis

Kring (2004) delivered a broad explanation of the traumatic disorder. According to him,

the trauma haunts the victim in the form of stimuli. This stimulus hits the memory of the victim

and reminds him of the traumatic event whenever he goes to the place where he suffered that

trauma, or smells or sees anything associated with the incident. In this passage, Naheed’s condition

is revealed when she came to know that she does not have to go to the hospital. Going to the

hospital for Rohan’s medical examinations creates anxiety in her. This anxiety is because she does

not want to remember the time when she aborted her and Jeo’s child. Here Naheed is facing the

same situation as mentioned above. Hospital is the place where she met with the trauma of losing

her child. When she visits the hospital, her mind starts tricking her by arising unknown fears in
 63

her. She tries to console herself but fails, and the unknown fears keep coming to her mind. Due to

these dreads of terror, she starts avoiding to go to such places. Caruth’s (1995) statement also

justifies her condition in which she claims that when a victim shows his delayed response to trauma

in the form of dreams, thoughts, and illusions, s/he either starts inclining or avoiding the places

that make her/him remember the traumatic incidents.

Passage no. 11

That afternoon thirty years ago……………….. mother was a fallen woman. (S.II, C.17, P.187).

Context

This selected paragraph is chosen from section II, chapter 17, and page 187 to explain the

trauma in the character of Rohan. Here Rohan is haunted by the recollections of his late wife,

Sofia. In this passage, he has delved into a thirty years old memory.

Analysis

This paragraph clearly explains how the trauma keeps on reflecting the scenario in mind.

Rohan, the character in TBMG, is going through the trauma of separation from his wife. This

paragraph highlights how a person going through a trauma keeps on seeing older memories that

make him restless. Here Rohan is visiting an eye specialist doctor who is his former student. When

he came to know about his identity, a long-forgotten memory jumped in his mind, which shows

his trauma that was embedded there deep down in his mind. He remembered this child, who was

the reason for Sofia, his late wife, and his fight. The boy, when caught stealing a spade, was

inquired about his action. The inquiry leads to horrific revelations that he was a child of fallen

women and had no father. He was stealing the spade to dig the place supposed to be his father’s
 64

grave, as told by his mother. Ultimately his apparent sin results in his dismissal from school. This

expulsion of an innocent boy was the cause of Sofia and Rohan’s fight, which was the starting of

their cold behavior towards each other. Even after thirty years, The traumatic memory was so fresh

in his mind as it happened yesterday. This condition of Rohan explains Caruth's notion (1995),

which asserts that a victim faced a most dreadful situation when he came to know about the trauma

he has encountered. When the victim came in contact with some place or person which reminds

him of his trauma, this situation reveals to him that he not only survived the trauma but he was

going through it without knowing it is traumatic for him. This state is where real trauma hits him.

Passage no. 12

A man with grave coal-black………………….rotting wounds and flesh. (S.I, C.14. P.144)

Context

This paragraph is taken from section I, Chapter 14, and page 144 of the selected fiction to

evaluate how the selected piece of writing is a trauma fiction, and in this fiction, the trauma of

characters recur as the trauma of society. Here writer had narrated the condition of Rohan and bird

pardoner when they went to rescue the pardoner’s son.

Analysis

The purpose of this study is to analyze the traumatic characters in the selected fiction and

discussing how an individual’s trauma is the trauma of society and also proving it as a trauma

fiction. Trauma fiction, according to Lacapra (2001), is fiction in which the writer turns into a

witness of trauma and also attempts to portray the trauma of the victim as it happened. In this

particular passage, the elaboration of smell, sweat, urine, rotting wounds, and the torture in

territories draw an image in the reader’s mind, with which the individual can understand the grief,

hopelessness, and pain of the traumatized people. Here Rohan and bird pardoner are going through
 65

the same when they were asked to follow the man who took him to warlord. The scenes they saw

during this time repeatedly made them realize the condition of their loved ones. The trauma faced

by the victims is explained via profound expressions in TBMG, which elaborates on how the

Pakistanis are also going through severe mental torture. Thus the fiction is performing as a witness

to the traumatic incidents. Americans captured many innocent Pakistanis for being involved in the

9/11 and tortured them to the extreme. They were left alone with their urine and the blood smell,

with which they died. Few of them who were left behind to survive without their loved ones went

into a deep trauma and psychological distress, which will remain part of their personality

throughout their life. Viewing their companions facing torture, the feelings of the pain recur the

trauma and grief amongst Rohan and bird pardoner. As stated by Erikson (1994), people who are

suffering from the same trauma develop a feeling of solidarity between them, and they think of

each other as the people of the same group. Such incidents remain the part of their memory for a

long time, as they can feel the situation in their imagined vision. Thus, it shows that the sight of

those traumatic incidents causes the distress of Rohan and bird pardoner. They start thinking about

their missing sons, and it moved the individual trauma of those who were being tortured to the

collective trauma of society.

Passage no. 13

The man stands before him………………very own caliphate of rubble. (S.II, C.19, P.213-214)

Context

This paragraph is taken from section II, chapter 19, and page 213 of the selected piece of

writing. This longest single sentence paragraph of the novel highlights how the people of Pakistan

sacrificed for their religion and how the American invasion converted their land into the wasteland .
 66

The setting of this passage is in a room where Mikal was kept as a prisoner. Here he is seeing

hallucinations of people who are making his blood boil by arising his inner traumas.

Analysis

Through the novel “The Blind Man’s Garden,” writer Aslam exposes the greed, corruption,

and profoundly spiritual and ideological fissures within the region as well as the limits of American

and, indeed, global vision. The American policies and the planned 9/11 attacks were arranged to

have control over the region, which keeps its religion ‘Islam’ on priority against happiness and

wealth. Here Mikal is in the custody of American, and in his vulnerable state, his all inner traumas

came to life in front of him. He feels helpless. This passage represents the traumatic self of Mikal,

where he is having a hallucination of an American soldier laughing at him for his susceptibility. It

seems to him that he is laughing at him for his fruitless and failed love, for not helping Jeo, for his

poverty, and his land’s sectarian hatred, for his people’s dishonesty, lies, hypocrisy, and violence.

Standing there, he had hallucinations in which he repeats all his traumas. His every feeling was

attached to incidents that happened to him before and shake the core of his heart. He felt like an

inhabitant of a wasteland, which is left with nothing but ruins. This condition of Mikal fulfilled

the assertions of Caruth (1996). She states; events of trauma that a victim went through in the past

keep reemerging in his thoughts, and after some time, they appear as hallucinations and other

unpleasant phenomena like dreams and illusions.

Passage no. 14

We thought you were dead……………………..while you were dead. (S.II, C. 35, P. 346-347).

Context
 67

This passage is taken from section II, chapter 35, and page 346-347. This passage is a conversation

between Rohan and his adopted son Mikal, who just came back from Afghanistan . In this passage,

he came to know about certain terrible things that happened in his absence.

Analysis

Rohan is telling his son, Mikal, that because of his long absence, he was considered dead. In

response to which, he replied Jeo’s death was not my fault, or maybe it was. I should have

protected him. This reply is the pure manifestation of double trauma, the trauma in which the

survivor feels himself guilty rather than fortunate. Here, Mikal is going through a double trauma

as claimed by Caruth (1996) that a victim who survived a trauma went through a double trauma,

the trauma of someone’s death, and the trauma of his survival. He takes his existence as trauma

because the memories of dead ones bother him, and he condemns his survival. So is the case with

Mikal, as when he enters the house, he saw the toy truck and shirt that reminds him of Jeo (c.35,

p.341). From the dialogue as mentioned above, it is also clear that he is feeling guilty and regrets

that he was not able to protect his brother. Rohan is also in the state of regret and told Mikal that

he wishes Mikal had told him of Jeo’s intentions, which shows that Rohan is also a victim of

double trauma and is going through the same guilt. Mikal did not respond to Rohan’s

confrontation. Later upon inquiring about Basie, Rohan was also speechless and distressed. This

unspeakability is also what Caruth (1995) termed as unrepresentable trauma. Mikal and Rohan are

both traumatized and are unable to confront each other. Each is thinking himself guilty, cursing

his survival, and avoiding to repeat the terrible experiences they went through.
 68

Passage no. 15

When they shot him ……………what snowbound winters were to Russia… (S.II, C. 35, P. 356).

Context

This passage is taken from section II ‘The Blind Man’s Garden,’ and chapter 35 of the selected

novel to prove the text as a trauma fiction. Here Yasmin, daughter of Rohan, is delved in the

memories of his dead husband Basie while worrying about their unborn child.

Analysis

This passage has the repetition of many memories that Yasmin and Basie shared. By analyzing

this passage, one can very surely term the selected writing as a ‘trauma novel’ as while putting

forth the features of a trauma fiction Whitehead (2004) claims that there is a replication of imagery

in trauma novels as flashbacks of characters are an essential part of such narratives. This piece of

the novel tries to explain the whole life of Basie in a glimpse. He was shot dead by terrorists who

shot eighty-six bullets in him. To Yasmin, each bullet was for the memories she shared with him.

These memories are, in fact, the repetition of Basie’s doings. This act of Yasmin, remembering

his way of talking, sitting, joking, arguing, loving, impersonating, and worrying, depicts her

traumatized condition, which is the caricature of the trauma she is going through as proposed by

Whitehead.

Passage no. 16

Just then a bearded man…………………………. being American informers. (S.III, C.36, P.398).
 69

Context

This paragraph is taken from section III, Equal Sons, chapter 36, and page 398 of the novel to

highlight collective trauma of society and the hater spread amongst the Muslims for Americans.

In this passage, Mikal, after finding an American soldier, thought to take shelter in a mosque that

seemed deserted. However, there he encountered with a bearded man who was performing ablution

for his prayer. This passage is a conversation between them.

Analysis

Aslam highlighted that it was Americans themselves who destroyed the country as well as

the trust of the people of the country. The primary reason behind the distrust was the trauma. As

emphasized by Erikson (1994) that a traumatic memory haunts a victim repeatedly up until he

becomes accustomed to it. This disturbance makes the victim restless and agitated, consequently

resulting in mistrust and doubtfulness of the victim. The victim sees no good coming from anyone

and doubt the intentions of everyone. The same is the case with people in that region as upon

asking if there is anyone who can speak English, the bearded cleric told him that people who can

speak English could be beaten up. It was because nobody was ready to trust English speakers due

to their traumatic distrust as the one who can communicate in American’s language can be a spy

or informer of America. This behavior was a reaction of shock that Pakistani people faced due to

the American attack. This shock contributed to make them unrest and arisen psychological illness

with which they started finding everyone as their enemy. Thus, they started reacting against their

fellows for spying for the Americans. This incident is also an example of collective trauma where

the group facing the same trauma creates a strong bond, consequently doubting the other group.

Passage no. 17

Jeo and Basie come……………………………standing beside his bed. (S.III, C. 36, P. 410)
 70

Context

This passage is taken from section III and chapter 36. This chapter is presenting the traumatic

situation of Mikal, one of Rohan’s foster son. Here he is seeing a dream in which he is having a

conversation with his dead brothers, Jeo and Basie.

Analysis

Here Mikal is trying to remember a dream that he just saw. He knew that he saw his dead brothers,

Jeo and Basie in his dream but was unable to recall its details. His action of seeing dead people in

his dream shows the trauma he is going through, who were very dear to him.

The dreams here are the flashbacks, just as Caruth (1995) states that after a trauma, the unconscious

mind of survivor plays his part, and he starts to have flashbacks in the form of dreams.

Nevertheless, the real trauma arises when the victim returns to reality and starts to know about his

surroundings. Like here, Mikal seeing his dead brothers in the dream shows that somewhere in his

unconscious mind, there is a trauma that haunts him in the form of dreams. When he regains the

conscious, he tries to remember what he saw in the dream. It turns out that he was asking his

brothers about life after death. So it was the trauma of the death of his brothers that is not leaving

his mind even when he is asleep.

Passage no. 18

He comes back and gets ……………. carefully begins to rechain himself. (S.III, c.36, p.429).

Context
 71

This paragraph is taken from section III, chapter 36, and page 429 of the novel to analyze the

trauma of Mikal. In this passage, Mikal is seeing a dream that shows his inner trauma that is

haunting him by showing its presence in his inner self.

Analysis

This passage is the scene where Mikal is taking the white American man to a safe place. In this

passage, he was tired from a hectic drive and was thinking about techniques to cross the booth so

that he can take the American safely to another side. After looking for safe passage, he came back

to his pickup and closed his eyes. In his little sleep, he dreamed about the American soldier that

he is not present in the pickup. He is in distress in his dream and is worried that the American

soldier will attack him. He is standing in his dream, numb and powerless. His dream shows what

Caruth (1995) says the traumatized person reveals his trauma after some time with the help of

dreams, way of thinking about some incident, avoiding some particular event that recollects the

memory, hallucinations, and powerlessness after or during these recollections of the memory. Here

Mikal is displaying more or less all the symptoms of a traumatized person. He is seeing the dream

in which he is afraid that the American will attack him, which shows his actual trauma is embedded

somewhere in his mind. The trauma that he went through when he was in American custody. He

also became paralyzed and was standing still, which shows his powerlessness during the

recollection of his traumatic memory.

Passage no. 19

He comes forward and hands………………it’s a sign that afterlife exists’ (S.III, c.36, p.448).

Context

This paragraph is taken from section III, chapter 36, and page 448. Here Mikal is having a

conversation with the older man who is a watchman of the captive American. This conversation
 72

manifested the trauma of Rohan specifically and Pakistani people generally. This exchange of

thoughts also reflected the trauma amongst the survivors and contributed to the trauma amongst

the community.

Analysis

In the final passages of this long chapter, the reader learns about the trauma of the Pakistani

general public represented by the older man. He is going through crucial moments of deep inner

retrospections. At the starting of this chapter, Mikal met several new people, and each one of them

had a story to tell Mikal. They told him about their sons, brothers, daughters, and father, who were

either kidnapped or killed by Americans. Mikal knew they also killed Jeo, his brother, but he

wanted to compensate for the damage he had done by killing two Americans unintentionally. Also,

he wanted to prove himself a better person than Americans. It is evident from the incident when a

boy in the village asked him to sell the American so that he can kill him; he told Mikal that

Americans are his enemies, and he should lick his blood as this is what they will do to him. He

replied that he would not do so as ‘that makes me better than him’ (p.411). All these incidents

portray how Pakistani people are going through the traumas of war that is not their war. In this

selected passage, the old watchman is handing over keys of the room where American is kept to

Mikal so that he can save him. The dialogues here show that how this individual trauma created a

bond between him and other people suffering from the same loss as quoted by Erikson (1994) that

collective trauma creates ties between people, which are so forceful that the individuals start to

recognize themselves with one another—here answering the question of Mikal that why is he

helping Mikal to set free the prisoner? The old man replies that he is gentle to this American only

because the old man’s son is also in the custody of American. So if he will be helpful to American,

maybe they will also be kind to his son. It is the same spirit that was seen when Rohan was helping
 73

the bird pardoner because his son, having the same name as Rohan’s son, Jeo, was in the custody

of Americans. In the same manner, the old man here is also feeling the connection with the people

who have lost their loved ones, manifesting his trauma in a bigger context that is collective trauma

without feeling suppressed by the cultural and religious norms.

Passage no. 20

She looks up from the page…………………………..name and see them. (S.IV, c.38, p.462).

Context

This passage is taken from the only chapter of the forth and last section, ‘Isaiah’ of the selected

piece of fiction. The passage is selected from chapter 38 and page 462 to prove the fiction as a

trauma fiction. It is also the concluding part where Naheed’s traumatic state of longing and

paralyzation of his mental affairs is described.

Analysis

Whitehead (2004) in the section ‘Style’ of her book ‘Trauma Fiction’ quotes that in a trauma fiction

traumatic character is portrayed as a person who goes through blows of shock and these shocks

lead to paralysis of the ongoing movement where he becomes unaware of the happenings around

him. She termed this concept as “Fantastic,” which means the victim is unable to differentiate

between reality and imagination in a traumatic narrative. The case of Naheed in the concluding

paragraph is just like this, where she seems unaware of her surroundings. She is seeing Mikal, who

is nowhere near her in reality. She saw his ghost, who was perhaps convincing her to continue

with life. The uneasiness of her thoughts affected her real life, and she saw his reflection

everywhere. This appearance of his image made her life paralyzed as when she saw his image, she
 74

unknowingly moved towards him as some unseen forces control her. In this scene, another element

of trauma fiction is also manifested. The ending of the novel is accurately the ending of a trauma

fiction that is described by Lacapra (2001). According to him, the elementary trait of trauma fiction

is that its ending is unpredictable, which flouts the closure. Here Naheed is still in the state of

longing, and even after Mikal’s known disappearance, she is unable to overlook his absence;

ultimately, this puts a question mark about her closure. She is still yearning for Mikal as she has

once before, as everyone told her he is not alive anymore. This conclusion of Naheed’s character

flouts the ending leaving Naheed in the state constant ache, yen, and distress.

The analysis of selected textual data by keeping in mind the trauma theory of Caruth (1996)

revealed that the significant characters in the novel TBMG are traumatized individuals who are

often seen delved in the memories of their past through illusions or flashbacks. The analysis also

revealed that these individuals are not suffering from a private trauma, instead, they are bearing a

collective trauma as described by Erikson (1994). The analysis also found the text under study is

a pure piece of trauma fiction, bearing all narrative techniques stated by Whitehead (2004).

4.1 Theories and Argumentative Analysis

The traumatization and Caruth’s trauma framework go hand in hand in TBMG by the pen of

Nadeem Aslam. The suffering of the survivors is more profound than the tortured who depart from

this mortal world. Right from the start of the selected novel, Rohan is living in the flashbacks of

the memories of his son Jeo and his late wife, Sofia. Rohan is an aggrieved father and husband

who is the most traumatized character of the selected fiction. Rohan, after the death of his wife

(Sofia), experiences the heat of haunting memories, and his soul burns in the flashbacks of good

and bad times. Rohan assumes that every burning candle of the house is the representative of his
 75

psychological injuries. The melancholy of Rohan is presented through the plants of the garden that

were planted by his wife, and they still make him remember his wife. He is a religious man and

unadornedly believed Islam, as he has named six houses of his school after the name of six holy

soils of Islam. His unembellished religious followership also forbade him to withdraw the

medication of his wife because her belief in Islam was shattered, and she was challenging the

religion by her sacrilegious questions. The burning of portraits drawn by his wife also shows his

stark religious affiliation as he considers it an irreligious act.

After analyzing the selected novel deeply, it became evident that Rohan, who lost his wife,

his son and his school has received the worst happenings in his life. The traces of trauma that leads

to collective trauma and double trauma in Rohan’s character is self-explanatory, and they remain

relevant throughout the development of the novel as the writer keeps on telling his readers what is

going on in Rohan’s life and what has already gone.

Mikal, an orphan, brought up by Rohan from the age of ten years, is also a lover, ambitious,

and self-contained traumatic character who has received the worst torture throughout the

development of the selected novel. The traces of trauma in the character of Mikal are also frequent

and fierce. Mikal not only faces the trauma, but he also faces double trauma of the survivors

contributing to the collective trauma of many families, as explained in the work of Erikson (1994).

The disruptive nature of double trauma faced by this character makes him the protagonists of the

story who is facing the issues of destroyed identity and speechless fright throughout the novel.

Mikal received multifaceted trauma concerning place, memory, and experience. His

reconfiguration and recollection of the self make him keep on fighting the circumstantial odds.

The disappearance, torture, hallucination, terrifying dreams, physical and psychological abuse

bored by Mikal has left a lifelong impact on his conscious. In TBMG, Mikal is a heroic figure,
 76

who is against all the odds and turmoil of war. He faced traumatic incidents right from the time

when he slipped from Pakistan to Afghanistan. He was traded between Afghani warlords and U.S.

troops, was injured, brutally interrogated at the prison, wounded, and tortured. He longed for his

beloved throughout the development of the selected fiction and managed to reach to her before her

second marriage and yet again ended up in imprisonment. Every moment spent in his life right

from the early death of his brother to the suffering he received has added to the count of haunting

memories for him. He, as a survivor, also faced double trauma, as he not only suffered his

misfortunes but also saw the deaths of his loved ones. So, Mikal’s trauma is beyond the regular

trauma because what he faced was never faced and felt by anyone else.

Naheed, like Mikal and Rohan, suffers from trauma as a survivor. She is the one who has

lost her husband (Jeo; moreover, she also longs for her lover (Mikal). Naheed experiences grief of

death, the grief of loss, and helplessness. She is afraid and traumatized deep inside whether she

will be able to see her life’s love and will ever live a normal and healthy life again. The memories

and longing for her lover always keep her traumatized, and she counts days after days in waiting.

She is one of the characters who is a survivor – widowed at the age of nineteen. She directly

receives no physical harm, but these traumatic happenings directly affect her mental health. She

has to cope with these memories– she is helpless in the hand of time and circumstances. The shocks

bring mental numbness for her. Her life received unexpected and sudden trauma. Throughout the

contemplation of the selected novel, the character of Naheed has been seen as a traumatic character

fighting against society, suffering the loss of her husband, and longing for her lover.

The above analysis makes it clear that the selected fiction comprises mostly of flashbacks of

memories faced by characters like Mikal, Rohan, and Naheed. The incidents like Sofia and Jeo’s

death, Mikal’s disappearance, imprisonment, bird pardoner’s sorrow, Tara’s helplessness, and
 77

Basie’s demise gave a sudden shock to characters, as they could not cope with so much distress.

Though dead but all the dead ones were alive in the memories of Rohan, Mikal, and

Naheed, who kept them delved in the past. Everything that relates to the war or wartime

scenario seems to them as wounds and lead them to the memories, which are painful to

them. Applying the theory of the Caruth (1996), Rohan is seen as a traumatic individual

as the sudden death of Jeo shocked him, from which he cannot bring himself out, and the

flashbacks of his memory are painful to him. Thus, as stated by Caruth (1995), the trauma

is a sudden shock to the mind of the individual or the community, for which they are not prepared.

In this case, Rohan was not prepared for the sufferings he faced, so the sudden shock led him to

the trauma.

Further, Caruth stated that after traumatic incidents or situations, the mind of survivors keeps

recalling them about the incident in the form of dreams, illusions, or memories. Thus, the survivors

experience the flashbacks of the incidents and think about what they could perform to react at that

time. As per Caruth’s theory, Rohan, Mikal, and Naheed are in the state of trauma due to sudden

shocks that they faced. From the analysis of selected passages, these characters can be termed as

traumatic beings. Rohan’s memories of Sofia and Jeo are the most disturbing. As, in these lines

trauma is evident in Rohan’s character

As Rohan makes his way through the garden, not long after nightfall, a memory comes to
him from his son Jeo’s childhood, a memory that slows him and eventually brings him to a
standstill. Ahead of him candles are burning in various places at the house because there is no
electricity. Wounds are said to emit light under certain conditions – touch them and the brightness
will stay on the hands – and as the candles burn Rohan thinks of each flame as an injury somewhere
in his house. (p.05)

Mikal’s haunting dreams and hallucinations of his past traumatic life are also what creates

trauma in him.
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Sleep overpowers him and he dreams that the American soldier has disappeared from the
back of the pickup, the sloughed-off chains lying there on the bed. In the dream he panics that he
will be attacked by the soldier from any direction and he stands paralysed in the darkness. (p.429)
Naheed’s numbness, her loss of track between reality and illusion, her visions of Mikal’s

ghost, and avoidance of going to traumatic locations proves that her character is also facing

trauma. As clear in the stated text.

She looks up from the page she has been reading just as the gate opens to admit Mikal.
Perhaps it is his ghost, here to convince her to continue with her life without him. He raises his
hand slowly and she stands up and walks towards him, her own hand held out. (p.462)
In the selected fiction, the author has highlighted both; the individual and collective trauma.

The characters show their individual traumas, and the collective trauma is reflected when these

individual traumas combine together and form a bond of unity between the individuals.

(Erikson,1994). As the characters in the selected novel started trusting and mistrusting each other.

They helped those who seem to them suffering the same trauma as themselves and killed others

whom they think are American’s informers, beat them for learning the enemy's language, and

adopting American styles. When Mikal was travelling with the American, during his journey, he

met several people, and everyone there told him about their loved ones who were captives in

Afghanistan by Americans. They felt each other’s pain. The same was the case with Rohan, who,

without considering his benefits or losses, went with the pardoner to secure his son, which leads

to his blindness. As stated in this text.

The exhaustion in the man’s eyes resembles the exhaustion in Basie’s eyes, who has been
following rumours of Mikal ever since they came back from Peshawar, his spirit almost defeated,
for now. (p.133)

Nevertheless, he faced the individual trauma of the death of his son and Basie faces the

trauma of his missing brother, but their traumas were just like the traumas of every father and

brother whose son or brother were in the war, turning it to the collective trauma of society.
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Further, Erikson (1994) also stated that the people who have gone through some trauma

feel that they cannot control their doings. They sense themselves as defenceless beings who cannot

govern situations of their affairs and cannot rule their lives. He asserts,

Traumatized people often come to feel that they have lost an important measure of control
over the circumstances o f their own lives and are thus very vulnerable. (p.194)
The same is the situation with Rohan. He is meeting the bird pardoner whose son, Jeo, is

missing. Exhaustion in the eyes of bird pardoner seems to Rohan, similar to Basie’s exhaustion as

his brother is also missing. He can detect his emptiness because he is also bearing the same burden

of losing his dear one. As Balaev (2014) mentioned about the people going through collective

trauma, may be suffering from great commotions, but can unfold their similar inner identities and

can empower their communal fragment as a society.

Also, according to Whitehead’s theory (2004), in the trauma-related novels or stories, the

writing does not follow the traditional writing patterns. There is no proper introduction or ending

points. Instead, it is based on the repetition of the imaginaries; the visions and the endpoints are

different from the usual novels. As in the selected novel, there is no well-knitted introduction of

characters at the start of the novel and also no closure at the end. Such writings are different from

the general writings as the repetition of the visionaries recalls the unfortunate incident again and

again, which struck the mind and raises several questions in mind (Whitehead, 2004). The same

is done by the Aslam, as he did not follow any linear opening, ending, and midpoint pattern;

instead, he kept telling the story with the help of flashbacks and memories of its characters, which

result in repetition of several incidents and ultimately in the trauma of characters.

According to Whitehead (2004), trauma fiction has several narrative techniques, including

repetition, hovering voice, memory places, choiceless choice, and Fantastic. All the mentioned
 80

characteristics of trauma fiction are there in TBMG. The flashbacks of memories of traumatic

characters cause repetition in the selected novel. At several places, Naheed and Rohan’s memories

are recurring, creating repetition in the text. The locations described in the selected novel are also

very significant in proving the fiction as a trauma fiction as they function as memory places that

contribute to the trauma of characters. Also, the choiceless choices of characters like Rohan, Mikal,

and Naheed are making the novel a trauma fiction, where they made several decisions without any

intentions. As Rohan is going with the bird pardoner and returning as a blind man, Naheed is going

to find Mikal without telling anyone, and most importantly, Mikal’s killing of American soldiers

are the decisions that turn out to be choiceless choices of traumatic characters.

Conclusion

This chapter shows the trauma Pakistani society faced due to the war on terror. The main

characters of the selected novel are analyzed to trace trauma. By analyzing the selected passages,

it is highlighted that Rohan, Mikal, and Naheed are the most traumatized individuals. Trauma is

evident in their behavior as they exhibit all the characteristics of traumatized individuals as spotted

by Caruth. Their individual trauma then leads to the trauma of Pakistani society as a whole and

creates unity between them. Erikson’s theory of collective trauma heightens the understanding of

the trauma of Pakistani society. The analysis also explored the elements of trauma fiction in the

selected novel by applying Whitehead’s theory, thus proving it a trauma fiction.

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CHAPTER 5

5 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Introduction

This chapter concludes the study and states the main findings derived from analysis of the

textual data. Furthermore, research questions are answered and recommendations to future

researchers are presented.

The fundamental idea of this study is that TBMG represents the trauma of Pakistani people

who suffered the WOT imposed by Americans on them. This study focuses on the individual and

collective trauma of Pakistani people and society as well as proving the selected piece of writing

as a trauma fiction. The problem that this study states is that fiction related to war portrays the

trauma of people affected by it, so it tries to depict that the selected narrative is a trauma fiction

that represents the trauma Pakistani people faced during WOT after the attacks of 9/11. The study

is limited to the scrutiny of TBMG by the pen of Nadeem Aslam. The study tries to accomplish

the concerns that were highlighted in the introduction of this study. The tracing of trauma is a very

technical task as one cannot claim to be a witness to all kinds of happenings. Trauma has to be

traced by delving into the minds of traumatized individuals. The particulars of the traumatic

incidents register in the mind of the victim, and s/he starts to have flashbacks and becomes

incapable of getting rid of these hallucinations.

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The selected fiction, TBMG, tells about the sufferings of Pakistani people who face America’s

WOT and also portrays the mind of those who were the victims of this war . TBMG has plenty to

offer about the trauma of survivors, haunting memories, and disturbing flashbacks as it

encapsulates love, longing, violence, regrets, memories, bigotry, injustice, oppression, and stories

of cruelty. Man being tortured by man for what he has not committed. The analysis of the selected

data has been conducted, bearing in mind the research questions mentioned in the introductory part

of the study. These research questions directed the study to be well gripped and fixated.

Considering the first research question, three main characters Mikal, Rohan, and Naheed are

examined for any traces of trauma. To trace how individuals are suffering from trauma Caruth’s

framework (1996) has been applied to the selected text. Secondly, the traumatic incidents are

traced in the data to indicate how an individual’s trauma leads to the collective trauma of society,

via Erikson’s theory (1994). Finally, it is analyzed how the tenets of trauma fiction are applied to

the selected writing. A systematic analysis of the selected novel is conducted using the above

mentioned theoretical frameworks to answer all the research questions.

5.1 Findings

This qualitative study analyses the selected piece of trauma fiction, TBMG, to comprehend

the mental traumas of Pakistani people and society. The findings of this study are based on fictional

writing, so this study cannot be generalized. The findings confirm the representation of trauma by

the analysis of the selected data, as suggested by theoretical models.

The first finding in the analysis of the selected text is that all main characters, Mikal,

Naheed, and Rohan, are suffering from trauma. The trauma in their characters is stemmed from

the distressing incidents in their lives. All sufferings in the selected fiction move around these
 83

characters. The gloomy shadows of deaths, torturing memories, peeps of American interrogation

cells and their inhumane torture, constant intimidation, psychological violence, hallucinations,

beatings, sleep deprivation, and distressing dreams illustrate the trauma of these characters who

have been crushed in the wrath of destructive blowouts. Freud’s view of trauma and the similar

definition of trauma by Caruth (1996) that categorizes it as an overwhelming experience, a wound

on the mind, which is far different from bodily trauma, stands lucid to trace the victims when they

undergo it. At a later stage of life, flashbacks and past experiences start their punishment as a

traumatized individual starts to have hallucinations and gives a delayed response to traumatic

incidents. The characters in the selected text endured unspeakable horrors ranging from being

physically injured in the act of war to the mental torture bore during the war. They never forget

the flashbacks of hard times spent in such grave situations . This whole representation of traumatic

characters accounts for the first research question that tells the readers that how the traumatic

incidents in the selected novel are embedded in the minds of significant characters who are affected

by the war on terror.

Secondly, the analysis finds that individuals in the selected text are implicated in each

other’s trauma, as stated by Caruth (1996). The bloodshed and heat of WOT, imposed by America

on Afghanistan, was even felt at a distant town “Heer” in Pakistan . The traumatic characters like

Rohan, Naheed, and Mikal slip in the clenches of war, and things never return to the same as they

were. Pakistani society became the victim of collective trauma; as stated by Erikson (1994),

collective trauma is a blow to social life. It is evident by the analysis of the selected text that every

other person was feeling the same distress that the traumatized individuals were facing. The bird

pardoner plays as a metaphor for the whole society. He is also going through the same trauma that
 84

Rohan is suffering. His only son Jeo is also in the custody of Americans, which results in the strong

bond between Rohan and bird pardoner. Due to this bond, Rohan decided to help him knowing

that the outcomes can be dangerous. Rohan’s trauma was implicated in the trauma of every father

whose son went to war and never came back. Naheed’s longings represent the desires of every

Pakistani woman whose lover or husband went to war and left her in constant yearning. She shares

the bond of the same trauma with Yasmin, as they both are in the state of longing, coping with the

trauma of their dead husbands. Mikal’s state denotes the condition of individuals who went on

war and tried to help the individuals facing the burdens of the war. His individual trauma is

portrayed as a collective trauma of Pakistani society when he shared his stories of war with the

people during his journeys. They also had the same stories of trauma to tell him about war ravages

and deaths and murders of their sons and brothers.

Finally, it is found that the selected novel is a trauma fiction, as all the characteristics of

trauma fiction are embedded in this piece of writing. The plot of selected fiction is hovering

between past and present, as described by Whitehead (2004). Traumatic characters are facing

haunted memories, dreams, or flashbacks from the past that lead to the repetition of several events

in the selected text. Memory places, like blind man’s garden, school, and the town Heer, contribute

to make the text an exact definition of a traumatic fictional narrative. The choiceless choices, like

the killing of Americans by Mikal and Rohan going to save bird pardoner’s son and returning

blind, are made by the traumatized characters to show how regular incidents lead to a traumatic

conclusion, consequently making the narrative a trauma narrative. Thus, answering the third

research question, it is highlighted that the features of trauma fiction are highly entrenched in the

selected novel.
 85

5.2 Future Implications and Suggestions

This study enabled the researcher to persuade future researchers to examine Pakistani

English Literature from numerous viewpoints. The selected piece of fiction, TBMG, can be traced

for stereotypical Muslims created by western power structures by keeping in view the neo-

orientalism of Edward Said. It can also be analyzed for cultural and economic repercussions by

bearing in mind the theories of Spivak and Bhabha.

For the present study, literary trauma has been applied to achieve the objectives. So, Trauma

theory can be used by other researchers to inspect different fictional pieces for different kinds of

traumas. Traumas that occur due to natural calamities, as well as cultural traumas, can also be

traced. Muhammad Hanif’s Red Birds (2018) can be traced to traumatic incidents in the lives of

the characters. Researchers can dig out the trauma of refugees as well as the people affected by the

war on terrorism in this novel. Bilal Tanveer’s The Scatter Here is Too Great (2013) can also

highlight the trauma and violence of Pakistani society after a bomb attack in Karachi. Mirza

Waheed’s The Collaborators (2011) can be investigated for the trauma of Kashmiri people who

are facing genocide and severe marginalization by an illegal authoritative and monarchal state .

The trauma can also be traced in the literature that is in some other languages as the traumatic

incidents can be finely described in the native language of the people who face traumatic incidents .

For this purpose, Pakistani researchers can scrutinize the literature written in Urdu and can

examine it for the traces of literary trauma theory. For instance, one can review

QudratullahShahab’s “Khuda Kay Liye” for the trauma of the subcontinent’s partition, which tells

the story of traumatic females living a life of misery after Indo-Pak partition.

Conclusion
 86

Concluding this, the main suggestion to keep in mind is that the researchers should be very

keen while evaluating the trauma in fictional narratives as these narratives are the sources that

make history and inform the new generations about the lost generations. The potential researchers

can analyze these suggested novels in the light of literary trauma theory. This study can pave ways

for future researchers who are trying to investigate Pakistani English Fiction. These

recommendations can be of great help in introducing new research areas.

 87

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