CHILDREN’S TRAUMA AND COPING STRATEGIES IN POST-9/11 AMERICAN NOVELS

Abstract

This paper explores the depiction of children’s trauma in post-9/11 novels. It also investigates the strategies that children adopt to cope with their trauma. Three American novels are selected, namely, John Updike’s Terrorist (2006), Don DeLillo’s Falling Man (2007), and Amy Waldman’s The Submission (2011). The theoretical concept of psychological trauma is applied to analyze the texts to examine how the tragedy of 9/11 affects the children in these works. In addition, Valerie Dripchak’s understanding of Posttraumatic Play (PTP) is utilized for exploring the children’s coping strategies with their traumatic experiences. The analysis revealed that the children in Terrorist and Falling Man act out their trauma through some games or playing activities that repeat their trauma and detach them from healing. Although some children act out their trauma in The Submission, the novel shows that children are able to work through their trauma and recover from it by adopting positive playing activities, including drawings.