The Narrow Road To The Deep North Analysis

Intro:

In the mid-nineteenth century, Australian prisoners of the Second World War were mandated into building a railway that would connect Siam to Burma. In “The Narrow Road to the Deep North,” Richard Flanagan depicts the horrendous conditions surrounding the building of what came to be known as the Burma Death Railway. In order to allow the Japanese Imperial Army to transport goods to Burma at a much quicker rate, prisoners faced immense hardships such as forced labour, malnutrition, and serious health concerns that included endless PTSD trauma, and appalling sanitary conditions . Richard Flanagan’s novel “The Narrow Road to the Deep North” depicts the brutality of war, which is characterized by the mental, emotional, and physical suffering

According to the American Psychiatric Association , “PTSD” of war veterans in WWII much similar to that of Jimmy Bigelow is described as having “Recurrent and intrusive distressing recollections of the event including images, thoughts, or perceptions; recurrent distressing dreams of the event; acting or feeling as if the distressing dreams were recurring (includes a sense of reliving the experience, illusions, hallucinations, and dissociative flashback episodes, including those that occur upon awakening or when intoxicated)” (Langer, 2). Even though the pain of the POWs from the outside seems minimal but really the pain is beyond explanation and unbearable as the victims of the disorder constantly have recurring “images, thoughts, or perceptions; recurrent distressing dreams of the event” of anyone’s worst nightmare. Much like the veterans, even though the pain does not seem substantial on the outside, but in reality it is beyond imagination. Altogether, the emotional torture is another trauma POWs come across where reliving the traumatizing moments only repeats and becomes a necessity to

Much like Darky Gardiner’s story, Richard Flanagan’s father Archie Flanagan experienced a similar scenario that occurred during his time as a POW in Japan. For example, during novel interviews, Richard Flanagan speaks about the time where his father’s fellow comrade Micky Hallam and his group skipped work. “[And upon returning back to] the camp that evening, they were subjected to vicious and prolonged bashing [by Japanese Officers]. As most went sullenly back to their tents, Mick was carried to the hospital. Next day he died” (M. Flanagan, Paragraph 25).This specific event and just even speaking about his father’s legacy is something Richard Flanagan constantly stresses as being the motivator in writing the novel “The Narrow Road to the Deep North”. The POWs serving on the Burma Railway also experienced the extreme case of malnutrition and extreme workload. For instance, with the speedo, a time slot in which work needed to be done faster, the Japanese kept pushing them with ever more beatings and ever less food to work harder and even longer during the day. As the POWs fell further behind the Japanese schedules, the pace grew more frantic” (Flanagan, 141). Despite the fact that the body