Hi everyone,
One of the recent readings we’ve done in my ASTU class is the short story Redeployment by Phil Clay. The short story describes the struggles of returnees from Afghanistan have faced such as PTSD and tensions between family members. One significant emotion I felt throughout the story was the idea of un-relatability and innocence. Sargent Prince shows this throughout his narrative, specifically when he goes to the mall with his wife. As he’s walking down the street he describes how he and his squad would asses the threat and strategically get down the road safely. He also mentions the civilians nearby, describing them as oblivious and in the “white zone” while he is stuck in the “orange zone”. The terms white zone and orange zone refer to the level of alertness one is at when perceiving a threat, white being the lowest and red being the highest.
When we discussed this short story some common themes appeared such as lack of communication, innocence, and un-relatability. Here, I focus on un-relatability. It seemed clear in the story that the normal civilians Sgt. Prince encountered (including his wife) couldn’t help him or relate to what he’d experienced, as it was unfathomable to them. This sense of un-relatability reminded me of another prevalent issue in our society, mental illness. When dealing with mental illnesses such as anxiety and depression, it is hard to support those suffering from them without personal experience. That lack of experience and miscommunication makes people feel isolated and creates a difficult atmosphere to address these issues in.
So how do we change that? Will discussions about personal experiences of war, and mental illness break that tension? Or is that an invasion of privacy? Are personal traumas easier to confront when they remain personal, or when they become collective?
