Role Of PTSD In Suzanne Fisher Staples Under The Persimmon Tree

(AGG) PTSD is a serious real world issue that millions of people experience during their lifetime. (BS-1) The author, Suzanne Fisher Staples, uses the characters to show how people are impacted from PTSD. (BS-2) PTSD also creates different types of conflicts which is shown between the characters. (BS-3) From this book I learned the importance of PTSD. (TS) Throughout the story, Under The Persimmon Tree, the author helps us hear a voice we may not have otherwise heard by showing impacts of PTSD.

(MIP-1) In the book, the author shows PTSD through the characters and how the characters are impacted. (SIP-A) The author uses Najmah to show her perspective of PTSD. (STEWE-1) Staples uses PTSD to show how people in the real world are affected by using

(SIP-A) In the book, Najmah has to face conflicts with herself. (STEWE-1) The author shows Najmah’s conflicts by saying, “I do not run or try to hide. I don 't care whether the Taliban find me and kill me” (Staples 83). In this moment Najmah is facing a big conflict. She has just lost her mother and baby brother. She doesn 't know where her older brother and father are either. Najmah is alone. This is PTSD because it shows a change in Najmah’s behavior. (STEWE-2) Another self conflict Najmah had, “It’s been more than two weeks since I’ve last spoken, and I’m not certain I will ever be able to speak again” (Staples 110). Here, Staples helps us understand PTSD by showing change in Najmah’s behavior. Najmah is not talking on her whole journey to Torkhum. She does not talk to Khalida or Akhtar. When Najmah is facing these conflicts with herself it is showing the reader how PTSD changes someone 's life. Najmah changed after witnessing her family’s death. Staples used this because we get to understand Najmah’s voice in this situation as she changed. (SIP-B) Najmah also is facing conflict with other characters in the novel. (STEWE-1) Najmah faces conflict with Khalida, “For all of her kindness toward me, I have begun to resent Khalida. It isn 't only that she tries to make me stay in the tent and help her work, or even that she disapproves of my acting like a boy. It 's more that she has her

(MIP-3) After reading this book the author has taught me that PTSD is a serious real world issue. (SIP-A) The change in Najmah’s behavior showed me what it is like to have PTSD as a child. (STEWE-1) Akhtar and Khalida are helping Najmah, but she is still in shock from the bombing. It says, “But I feel as if my tongue has been locked inside my mouth since the moment I saw my mother airing the quilts just before the bombs fell. I try to communicate, but although the words form inside my head, my tongue and lips will not cooperate” (Staples 88). This showed me how hard the loss of her family was for Najmah. Her behavior changes because she stops talking and loses hope. This was an important moment for me to see PTSD, because she wants to talk but she cannot force herself too. (STEWE-2) I also see how PTSD changes Najmah in another section of the book. It states, “By that evening a dull ache has settled into my belly and my bowels, and my legs feel as if they’re made of water. I am unable to concentrate on anything, not even on how I will look for my father and brother. The thought that I might be an orphan hovers around me like a wicked djinn, and so my mind flits from one thought to another, not allowing in anything that is so troubling” (Staples 103-104). Since so much has happened to her in a short time period, she cannot think straight. It shows me how the PTSD is overcoming her and taking over her mind. (SIP-B) The change in the other character’s behaviors have also