Examples Of Trauma In The Great Gatsby

Jessica Ivie
Schimizzi
ENGL 206
January 6, 2023
Torrential Trauma
Each and every day, another person just like the rest faces an experience that will forever change their life physically, mentally, emotionally. Whether it be abuse, violence, accident, or intentional, many events can lead to severe trauma in one’s life whether it be right away, or slowly developing. Over time, trauma can dissipate or become significantly worse. In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Daisy and Gatsby hit and kill Myrtle leading to a slew of trauma and recovery from those who witnessed and experienced it. In The Lord of the Flies, the boys killed Simon and Ralph and Piggy experience severe trauma from this memory and try to cope. These traumatic experiences

The many forms of shock can be seen in the books faced by those who both acted in and witnessed these traumatic experiences. After the car accident, “Wilson neither heard nor saw. His eyes would drop slowly from the swinging light to the laden table by the wall, and then jerk back to the light again, and he gave out incessantly his high, horrible call” (Fitzgerald 138). Wilson couldn’t process the murder of his wife and his body didn’t know how to cope. He looks all over, cries out, and phases out because the things he saw were so morbid and traumatic he couldn’t process it all. Additionally, after the murder of Simon, “Ralph, cradling the conch, rocked himself to and fro. ‘Don’t you understand Piggy? The things we did--’” (Golding 157). Ralph rocked back and forth in an effort to keep his brain processing and moving on. However, these morbid memories threw him out of his normal mental state and messed with his mental homeostasis. Due to this shock, the brain does anything and everything it can to rationalize the

When in a state of shock, it can be hard for one to get out of it and move on. The brain needs to cope and shock is that way. In both books there is a figure who brings the one most affected back to Earth and helps them to snap out of it. Tom sees Wilson in this shocked state and “walked quickly over to Wilson and, standing in front of him, seized him firmly by the upper arms. ‘You’ve got to pull yourself together,’ he said with soothing gruffness” (Fitzgerald 140). In order to snap Wilson out of this state, Tom tries to gently knock some sense into him. He both verbally and physically does something in an effort to shock him out of his own mind. Piggy is there to ground Ralph, “‘That was murder.’ ‘You stop it!’ said Piggy, shrilly. ‘What good’re you doing talking like that?’” (Golding 156). Ralph cannot get over the fact that they had killed someone and Piggy reminds him that it’ll do no good to just sit in shock, but that he needs to snap out of it and continue on. After all this that has been faced, one is left with severe mental trauma and the brain tries to find a way to