Symptoms of PTSD

Throughout this novel something that truly stuck out to me was the trauma that all the characters faced. The character in particular that seems to suffer the most from her past is Sethe. She started off living at Sweet Home which was a place for slaves, and at Sweet Home she was beaten, sexually and physically abused. Also she was whipped, beaten by school boys before they robbed her of her breast milk. Sethe was then forced to give birth while running away. She traveled many miles to get to 124. She raises Denver on her own. Her two sons run away due to ghosts. Her baby died as well as Baby Suggs. It is incredible that one person can continue living their life when so much has gone terribly wrong. Paul D and Denver have also gone through a lot. For instance, Paul D was forced to wear a iron bit and was beat repeatedly at Sweet Home. Denver is forced to live with a ghost in her house and her mom being unstable. Since I am analyzing this book through the Psychoanalytic Lense, I can really pay attention to the way characters think and act. I can sense PTSD in Sethe and maybe some personality disorders in Denver. Paul D also has some symptoms of PTSD by how ridiculously high his stress levels seemed to be. Sethe's past has shown me that she is broken but strong, reminding me of the movie unbroken. Sethe is interesting. She closes herself up to the world, but acts as if nothing is wrong. Sethe seems to put her family before her own needs: she makes sure Denver doesn't have to complain about anything, and allows them both to live a comfortable life. But then Paul d comes in, in the middle of the book. It appears that Denver doesn't like Paul d, and doesn't respect his PTSD background, and simply sees him as a disrespect to the bond between 

Sethe and her. I think Denver acts this way because she doesn't know what Paul d went through. She thinks Sethe's life is cut and dry, but it's not. Denver hasn't seen the horrid life of sweet home, where countless rapes and assaults occurred. Denver represents innocence of the world, protected by her mother. In my opinion, this shows us Denver's opinion internally. We're able to psychoanalyse Denver and see who she truly is: a flower unexposed to the dirt she rose from. The dirt that her family was thrown into is the same dirt that she will rise from.