Trauma in Girl at War Sydney Marks College

In the novel Girl at War, Sara Nović incorporates the theme of trauma throughout the story from the Yugoslav Wars that impacted most of the characters’ lives. Readers get to experience the characters during the war and many years later as they are recovering and learning to deal with the trauma. Ana Jurić, the main character, is who the readers are lead to sympathize with the most from her role in the novel, how the book is set up, and what she experiences throughout her life.

Since Girl at Waris about Ana, the main character, and told from her point of view, the audience stays with Ana throughout her life. During this time, we also get to know her deepest thoughts and feelings, from the time she was a ten-year-old living in Croatia to when she is in her 20s in New York City. At the beginning of the book, when she is young during the war, we can tell by her thoughts that she is not sure of the state of her country:“I didn’t understand why the Yugoslav National Army would want to attack Croatia, which was full of Yugoslavian people, but when I asked my father he just sighed and closed the paper” (Nović 19). Ana continues to ask her father questions about the war, about the JNA and the Četniks, about the bearded men cutting down...