An Analysis of the Psychological Turmoil Experienced by Munaweera’s Female Characters in Island of a Thousand Mirrors

Abstract

The study aims to explore the psychological impact of war on Munaweera’s women in the novel Island of a Thousand Mirrors. This article will be focusing on the trauma experienced by female protagonists who were on opposing sides of Sri Lanka’s civil war and who simultaneously played the roles of terrorist and refugee will be discussed. This novel depicts the ethnic violence that exists in the nation and tells the horrific stories of families who both fled and remained in Sri Lanka. Nayomi Munaweera attempts to capture how war upends the lives of regular people in her book. She retells the stories of the Sinhalese, Tamils, and Burghers who comprise the island’s multi-cultural reality, providing an impartial account of the history of the Sri Lankan civil war from a variety of viewpoints. The tragedies of war shatter the peace. This novel centers on the psychological aspects of refugees and terrorists, specifically focusing on memory and trauma. Trauma is an emotional reaction to the horrific event that negatively affects the victim’s mental state. The traumatic thoughts cause a person to think very differently about themselves and other people. This novel attempts to depict the psychological trauma that violent ethnic conflict causes to its victims while also showing the horrors of war. The purpose of this article is to analyze the idea of women being victims by using trauma theory.