Just Listen Witnessing Trauma By Tim O Brien s The...

In Susan Farrell, the author of â€Å"Just Listen†: Witnessing Trauma in Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, mentioned â€Å"...all theorists agree that the process of recovery from trauma must involve a narrativization of traumatic event--putting a sensory images into words in order to integrate trauma into a person s life story† (186). However, without reading Cathy Caruth’s Trauma, readers will not understand that not only integrating trauma into a narrative will help them recover but it also allows the witness apprehend their flashbacks into meaning. Flashbacks, although are taunting, has the most vivid images compared to narrated memories. For one to remember a highlight or a significant moment, one must preserve it as a flashback. In The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien convert his flashbacks into narrative memories allowing himself and readers to comprehend his experiences, but O’Brien also added flashbacks into his memories create the most graphic images for the readers. Farrell argues, â€Å"Merely telling one’s story of trauma, however is not enough to begin the healing process† (186). Flashbacks are more than a memory, even if one tells others their flashbacks, one still would not understand the meaning or the significance of the intrusive memory. According to Caruth, â€Å"The flashbacks or traumatic reenactment conveys , that is both the truth of an event, and the truth of its incomprehensibility† (Caruth 153). In order for one to understand and heal from their trauma, one