VYTAUTO DIDŽIOJO UNIVERSITETAS HUMANITARINIŲ MOKSLŲ FAKULTETAS UŽSIENIO KALBŲ, LITERATŪROS IR VERTIMO STUDIJŲ KATEDRA

Justė Vaitiekūnaitė

ISTORINĖ TRAUMA RŪTOS ŠEPETYS ROMANE „DRUSKA JŪRAI“

Bakalauro baigiamasis darbas

Anglų filologijos studijų programa, valstybinis kodas 612Q30004 Anglų filologijos studijų kryptis

Vadovė prof. dr. Ingrida Eglė Žindžiuvienė ______(parašas) (data) Apginta doc. dr. Rūta Eidukevičienė ______(parašas) (data} Kaunas, 2020

HISTORICAL TRAUMA IN RUTA SEPETYS' NOVEL SALT TO THE SEA

By Justė Vaitiekūnaitė

Department of Foreign Language, Literary and Translation Studies Vytautas Magnus University Bachelor of Arts Thesis Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Ingrida Eglė Žindžiuvienė 3 June 2020

Santrauka

Šis baigiamasis darbas pateikia istorinės traumos analizę Rūtos Šepetys romane „Druska jūrai“. Šios analizės tikslas yra pristatyti terminą trauma bei nustatyti istorinės traumos pavyzdžius romane. Keturių pagrindinių personažų romane „Druska jūrai“ minčių citatos ir komentarai apie jas yra pateikti analitinėje dalyje. Tam, kad temos analizė būtų aiški, buvo atlikti tam tikri veiksmai analizuojant šį romaną. Šį baigiamąjį darbą sudaro penki skyriai, taip pat literatūrinių šaltinių sąrašas ir dveji priedai darbo pabaigoje. Pirmas šios analizės tikslas - pristatyti autorę Rūta Šepetys, jos populiarius romanus „Tarp pilkų debesų“ bei „Druska jūrai“. Ši informacija yra pateikta pirmame skyriuje, kuriame taip pat pristatyta šio baigiamojo darbo struktūra. Antras analizės tikslas – paaiškinti pagrindinius traumos tematikos literatūros kūrinių bruožus, pabrėžti skirtumus tarp individualios ir kolektyvinės traumų bei apibūdinti, kaip istorinė trauma pasireiškia šiuolaikiniuose romanuose. Visa ši informacija yra pateikta antrame šio darbo skyriuje, remiantis surinktomis teorinėmis mintimis. Trečias tikslas - pateikti istorinį romano „Druska jūrai“ kontekstą, tai atlikta trečiame skyriuje. Pagrindinis tikslas yra išanalizuoti romaną „Druska jūrai“ ketvirtame skyriuje, taikant surinktą teorinę informaciją apie istorinę traumą. Šiai analizei atlikti yra naudojami tyrimo metodai, vienas jų – romano „Druska jūrai“ analizė, pasitelkiant idėjas iš teorinės dalies. Taip pat yra pateikti individualios ir kolektyvinės traumos pavyzdžiai romane, cituojant pagrindinių veikėjų mintis bei jas analizuojant. Analizės pabaigoje yra pabrėžtos sąsajos tarp individualios ir kolektyvinės traumų. Analizės rezultatai yra aptarti bei išanalizuoti. Baigiamojo darbo apibendrinime yra pabrėžta, jog veikėjai romane kenčia nuo individualios bei kolekyvinės traumų, taip pat šios traumos yra glaudžiai susiję karo kontekste. Šios analizės rezultatai yra aktualūs, kadangi joje yra apibūdintas karo bei tragiškų istorinių įvykių poveikis žmonėms, jų psichologinei būklei, bei aptartas individualios bei kolektyvinės traumų susiformavimas. Išvadoje paminėta, jog yra svarbu skleisti informaciją apie istorinę traumą bei tragiškus įvykius, kurie ją sukėlė, tam, kad būtų galima išsaugoti prisiminimus apie svarbius istorinius įvykius ir pasimokyti apie juos. Šio darbo pabaigoje yra literatūros šaltinių sąrašas bei dveji priedai: priedas A („Rūtos Šepetys romano „Druska jūrai“ santrauka“) bei priedas B („Wilhelm Gustloff ir S-13: 1945 m. sausis“).

Summary

This bachelor thesis analyzes historical trauma in Ruta Sepetys’ novel Salt to the Sea. The aim of the research is to elucidate the meaning of trauma and to determine how the historical trauma is reflected in the novel. Thoughts of the four main characters in the novel Salt to the Sea are quoted and commented in the analytical part. Certain actions were taken in order to provide the clear analysis of the theme. This bachelor thesis consists of five chapters, the list of works cited and the two appendices at the end of the thesis. The first objective of the research is to introduce the author Ruta Sepetys, her popular novels Between Shades of Gray and Salt to the Sea, and the structure of the thesis paper. This information is presented in the first introductory section. The second objective is to explain the main concepts of trauma fiction, to distinguish the differences between individual and collective traumas and to define the presence of historical trauma in contemporary novels. All this information is provided in the second section of the theoretical part, based on the collected theoretical ideas. The third objective is to provide the historical context of the novel Salt to the Sea in the third section. The main objective is to analyze the novel Salt to the Sea applying the collected theoretical information about historical trauma in the fourth section. Research methodology includes analyzing the novel Salt to the Sea with reference to the ideas from the theoretical part. Examples of individual and collective historical traumas in the novel are introduced, while quoting the main characters in the novel. At the end of the research, the interconnection between individual and collective traumas is emphasized. The results of the research are discussed and summarized in the fifth section. In the conclusion, it is stated that characters in the novel suffer from both individual and collective traumas and that these traumas are interconnected in the context of war. This analysis is relevant because it emphasizes the impact of the war and horrendous events to person’s mental state and the emergence of individual and collective traumas. Also, it is important to spread the information about historical trauma and the tragic events that caused it, in order to preserve the memories of important historical events and to learn about them. There is a list of works cited at the end of the paper, which is followed by Appendix A (“Plot Summary of Ruta Sepetys’ Novel Salt to the Sea”) and Appendix B (“Wilhelm Gustloff and S-13: January 1945”).

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 INTRODUCTION ...... 1

2 MAIN CONCEPTS OF TRAUMA FICTION ...... 3

2.1 INDIVIDUAL AND COLLECTIVE TRAUMA...... 5

2.2 TRAUMA NARRATIVES AND THEIR STRUCTURES ...... 6

2.3 HISTORICAL TRAUMA IN CONTEMPORARY NOVELS ...... 8

3 SOCIO-HISTORICAL CONTEXT OF THE NOVEL SALT TO THE SEA ...... 10

4 REPRESENTATION OF HISTORICAL TRAUMA IN RUTA SEPETYS’ NOVEL SALT TO THE SEA 13

4.1 THE STRUCTURE OF THE NOVEL SALT TO THE SEA ...... 13

4.2 INDIVIDUAL TRAUMA IN THE NOVEL SALT TO THE SEA ...... 17

4.3 COLLECTIVE TRAUMA IN THE NOVEL SALT TO THE SEA ...... 23

5 CONCLUSION ...... 31

WORKS CITED ......

APPENDIX A “PLOT SUMMARY OF RUTA SEPETYS’ NOVEL SALT TO THE SEA”......

APPENDIX B “WILHELM GUSTLOFF AND S-13: JANUARY 1945” ......

1 Introduction

The theme of this BA thesis is historical trauma in Ruta Sepetys’ novel Salt to the Sea. This novel reflects the horrors and trauma caused by the historical events of World War II. The story presents characters who have different backgrounds of their life and who face the difficulties and dangers of the period. Together they try to survive the war. In order to survive, they have to find strength in themselves and adapt to the circumstances that cannot be changed. The circumstances are so harsh that the traumatic experience of the characters is inevitable. The aim of the research is to analyze the Ruta Sepetys’ novel Salt to the Sea and to determine how historical trauma is reflected in the lives of the characters. In addition to this, the aim is to analyze the term historical trauma and determine how it is reflected in the lives of characters in the novel Salt to the Sea. Theoretical research was conducted in order to provide precise information about the meaning and types of trauma. The ideas of writers and editors, such as Jeffrey C. Alexander, Sara. Constantakis, Aurelija Daukšaitė, Jerome De Groot, Mustafa Kirca, Hywel Dix, Cathryn Prince. Reinholf Pflugfelder, Rudolph Rummel, Jack Saul, Ruta Sepetys, Renee Steinberg, John Toland, Robert J. Ursano, B. G. McCaughey, C. S. Fullerton, Peter A. Levine, Ruth Leys, Anne Whitehead, Laurie Vickroy, David T. Zabecki, William H. Van Husen, Carl O. Schuster, and Marcus O. Jones were quoted in this paper. Ruta Sepetys is the author of fiction appropriate for the readers of different age groups. As Sarah Constantakis states, she is “a crossover novelist, with broad appeal to both adult and teen readers” (Constantakis 2). These facts are stated in Sepetys’ biography: “She was born in Detroit, Michigan, on November 19, 1967. Her father, a Lithuanian, survived nine years in refugee camps before he was resettled in the United States” (Constantakis 2). The experience of her father was one of the reasons why she chose a historical context of the World War II in her novels. Her first successful bestseller was the historical novel Between Shades of Gray. The novel is about the events that happened at the beginning of the World War II. Ruta Sepetys analyzes the roots of her family and puts effort on finding the information about historical background, during which her family had lived. As Renee Steinberg states in her article, “this novel is based on extensive research and inspired by the author’s family background […] it is a gruesome tale of the deportation of Lithuanians to Siberia starting in 1939” (Steinberg 170). The story is told by a 15-year old Lina, who is trapped in a work camp with her mother and brother, and together they try to survive living

1 under the brutal control of the Soviet officers. There are no limits to their cruelty, and the purpose of the author is to reveal the cruel history to her readers. In Steinberg’s words, This is a grim tale of suffering and death, but one that needs telling […] Unrelenting sadness permeates this novel, but there are uplifting moments when the resilience of the human spirit and the capacity for compassion take over. This is a gripping story that gives young people a window into a shameful, but likely unfamiliar history (Steinberg 170).

This novel is beneficial for the readers because of its plot and the provided historical facts, which make the story partially educational. According to Constantakis, there was a reason why the author decided to write another historical novel: “Sepetys was inspired to write Salt to the Sea by the story of her father’s cousin, who was meant to be a passenger aboard the doomed Wilhelm Gustloff but was left at the port when the ship sailed.” (Constantakis 2). The cousin is considered to be lucky because the fact that she was left at the port saved her life. The ship Wilhelm Gustloff sank in 1945 and took thousands of lives to the bottom of the sea. The novel Salt to the Sea is about a group of refugees who travel to East Prussia trying to avoid the encounter with Soviet Red Army in the end of the World War II. The story begins in January 1945 and focuses on four young people that come from different places and each of them have secrets but have the same purpose. They want to survive and the only way to do this is to escape with the ship Wilhelm Gustloff, which is destined to sink. The experiences of medical nurse Joana Vilkas from Lithuania, Polish girl Emilia Stozek, East Prussian young man Florian Beck and German Alfred Frick are presented in this story. The hardships and traumatic experiences of these young people are unavoidable under the circumstances triggered by historical events in the story. Real historical facts and events intertwine with the tragic lives of the characters and lead them to psychological trauma. The structure of this paper is as follows: after the first section, the introduction, the main body part is presented. The second section includes theoretical ideas about trauma and the types of trauma. The third section presents socio-historical context of the novel Salt to the Sea. In the following sections these ideas are analyzed from the aspect of the events in Ruta Sepetys’ historical novel Salt to the Sea. The paper ends with a conclusion, which summarizes the main points that were presented in the theoretical and analytical parts and emphasizes the meaning of historical trauma in the historical novel. There is a list of works cited at the end of the paper, which is followed by Appendix A (“Plot Summary of Ruta Sepetys’ Novel Salt to the Sea”) and Appendix B (“Wilhelm Gustloff and S-13: January 1945”).

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2 Main Concepts of Trauma Fiction

As a term, trauma has a few meanings and they are related in some way. Ruth Leys presents the first meaning as follows: “trauma was originally the term for a surgical wound, conceived on the model of a rupture of the skin or protective envelope of the body resulting in a catastrophic global reaction in the entire organism” (Leys 19). This meaning of the term is related to the physical pain in the body of an individual after an injury. Physical trauma affects an individual only physically and s/he feels physical pain, which can be facilitated with medical aid. The second meaning of a term suggests that trauma is a mental long-term reaction to a shocking event in the individual’s life, which appears in human behavior later on. There were many tragic historical events throughout the history that resulted in psychological trauma of people. Trauma and horrifying events often occur in many people’s lives. Sometimes traumas happen because of historical and political processes. Robert Ursano et al. state that “the study of psychological responses to trauma began with observations of the emotional reactions to one of the oldest manmade traumas – war” (Ursano, et al. 6). According to Laurie Vickroy, “Trauma is “an individual’s response to events that is of such intensity that it impairs emotional or cognitive functioning and can bring lasting psychological disruption. Despite the human propensity to survive and adapt, traumatic experiences can alter people’s psychological, biological, and social equilibrium to such an extent that they become obsessed with the past, their attention diverted from dealing with new situations” (Vickroy 15). Therefore, the people who suffer from trauma cannot easily advance in life because they become the memories of the past events haunt them. Traumas cause psychological aftereffects that can be felt by a person for a long time, according to Ursano et al., “The attributes of these aftereffects trigger anxiety, startle reactions and numbness” (Ursano et al. 7). These symptoms are triggered by mental condition of a person and cannot be easily cured. As Pierre Janet states, “an event only becomes a trauma when overwhelming emotions interfere with proper memory processing” (in Levine 1). He explains that “trauma is held in procedural memory – in automatic actions and reactions, sensations and attitudes, and that trauma is replayed and reenacted as visceral sensations (anxiety and panic), body movements, or visual images (nightmares and flashbacks)” (in Levine 1). Reactions like these do not allow one to forget the traumatic events and to progress in moving forward in life, Janet also emphasizes that “Traumatized people get stuck in the past: They become obsessed with the horror they consciously want to leave behind, but they keep behaving and feeling as if it is still

3 going on” (in Levine 1). Even after the traumatizing event one can still feel the horror of that event. Another idea about the inability of forgetting traumatic events was proposed by Sigmund Freud, who wrote that “the reason why people keep repeating their traumas is due to their inability to fully remember what has happened. Because the memory is repressed, the patient ‘is obliged to repeat the repressed material as a contemporary experience, instead of … remembering it as something belonging to the past’” (in Levine 2).

The shock that people felt during a traumatic event preclude the normal reaction of a brain and, for this reason, a shocking event does not become a regular memory. There are existing ways of coping with various types of trauma. One of them is the support from those who are around. Ursano et al. state that “Social support is the comfort, assistance, and information an individual or group receives from others” (Ursano et al.18). In addition to this, the relatives and people close to a person can effectively expedite healing after trauma: “Families can be an important source of emotional and instrumental support to the primary victims of trauma […] spouse/significant other is likely to be an important part of the recovery environment” (Ursano et al.18). According to Pierre Janet, there is another way to heal and suppress mental trauma: Trauma could be resolved by reliving the events in a hypnotic trance state. By safely replying old events in their minds and then constructing an imaginary satisfactory conclusion – something they had been unable to do during the original event because they were too overwhelmed by helplessness and horror – they could begin to fully realize that they had, in fact, survived the trauma and could resume their lives (in Levine 2).

A person may try to memorize the traumatic events and trying to think of a positive ending or outcome from them, it is an effective way of changing an attitude toward the event because a certain period of time is passed after the event and the mind is ready to heal itself. There is no one correct way to heal psychological trauma. Each person is an individual and has to find the best way of healing for himself/herself, which can last longer than expected. As was previously stated, trauma may be a term representing a physical injury or psychological condition. Historical events, such as war, can severely affect the psychological condition of people and it may be disturbed for a lifetime. Traumatized person may feel anxiety, have flashbacks and nightmares. There are a few ways to quicken the psychological healing process. One way is to imagine the traumatic event and think about the emotionally satisfying ending of it. The second way is to communicate with one’s relatives and feel their emotional support. The sense of collectivity provides a feeling of calmness and may help to heal psychological trauma.

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2.1 Individual and Collective Trauma

Psychologists identified two kinds of trauma that people can experience. A person can have a traumatic experience on a personal level or on a collective level. Jack Saul inscribed Kai Erikson’s explanation of personal trauma into his book: “By individual trauma I mean a blow to the psyche that breaks through one’s defenses so suddenly and with such brutal force that one cannot react to it effectively” (in Saul 3). In addition to this, individual trauma is the sudden shock to an unexpected event that leaves the person horrified and with a feeling of helplessness. Personal trauma can affect an individual personally, after s/he experiences a specific shocking event, which s/he has to cope with individually. Jeffrey C. Alexander presents a precise description of collective trauma: “Cultural trauma occurs when members of a collectivity feel they have been subjected to a horrendous event that leaves indelible marks upon their group consciousness, marking their memories forever and changing their future identity in fundamental and irrevocable ways” (Alexander 1). This means that a big group of people suffers from the same tragic event, which is most likely a historical event, and it negatively affects their psychological condition. Erikson describes collective trauma as follows: “By collective trauma, on the other hand, I mean a blow to the basic tissues of social life that damages the bonds attaching people together and impairs the prevailing sense of communality” (in Saul 3). Erikson also states that the collective trauma is a slower inner process: “Collective trauma works its way slowly and even insidiously into the awareness of those who suffer from it, so it does not have the quality of suddenness normally associated with ‘trauma’” (in Saul 3). However, it is still a case when a person is shocked and comes to understanding that s/he is separated from his community and that s/he is not a part of the harmonious community. According to Erikson, then one must accept the fact that “‘we’ no longer exist as a connected pair or as linked cells in a larger communal body” (in Saul 3). The sense of harmonious community is being disrupted by the general feeling of uncertainty, pain and trauma. Undoubtedly, negative impact of collective trauma exists and Saul emphasizes that “Trauma, loss and displacement […] disrupt social networks and shared sentiments and may cause a collapse of morale” (Saul 5). There are more probable effects that may appear after collective traumatic experience: “Collective trauma may lead to increases in structural and individual violence, the inability to react to patterns of threat and opportunity, and cycles of social fragmentation” (Saul 5). Traumatic experiences often distinctly deteriorate the situation. According to Saul, “Catastrophic events often open up or exacerbate previously existing fault lines of racism and other forms of discrimination, social and economic inequalities, and prior historical

5 traumas” (Saul 5). The relationships of people become harder to preserve. Ingrida Eglė Žindžiuvienė discusses the occasions, when both individual and collective traumas are connected in some way. She presents the example of how memories of a landscape in trauma narratives can be related to both personal and collective experience. As Žindžiuvienė states, The memory of place refers to an internalized place, which could be either remembered or imagined. The place may serve as a password among the witnesses and can be recognized by the readers of traumatic narrative. The place can also form or transform the memory sites and become a part of individual or collective memory. The place of trauma can itself be a powerful symbol, on which collective memory is constructed (Žindžiuvienė 71).

This means that every individual observes the place independently and at the same he experiences similar feelings to others who are sensing the same. Therefore, it becomes a collective experience. As Žindžiuvienė adds, “collective memory may have a strong influence on the capacity of individual or personal memory; likewise, individual memory influences the generality of collective memory” (Žindžiuvienė 71-72). In addition to this, the effect of individual experience can make an impact on the whole community, and then the experience becomes common. Therefore, the individual and collective trauma can influence each other and can be related. Both individual and collective traumas differ in their features, but, according to Erikson, they can both be experienced at the same period of time, he states that “people who suffer from individual trauma usually have difficulty recovering if the community to which they belong remains shattered. Similarly, individual therapy is usually most successful when done in concert with a nurturing and supportive environment” (Saul 4). Therefore, the presence of these traumas can depend on the environment.

2.2 Trauma Narratives and Their Structures

Trauma fiction is a literary genre representing the historical events and experiences of those who suffered trauma throughout the tragic events in history. Laurie Vickroy shares her thoughts about the outcomes of trauma literature: “Psychological frameworks share with trauma fiction an investigation of the situational and social variables shaping the experience of trauma survivors. They help reveal the many emotional, social, and cognitive implications of trauma” (Vickroy 2). This means that reading trauma narratives can be a method of educating oneself about the history and tragic events, and the emotion one receives from the written text provides the opportunity to imagine what the victims of those events were feeling on a social level.

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Currently, trauma narratives and trauma fiction have become an urgent issue in critical analysis of contemporary literature. Anne Whitehead explains the contemporary usage of the term trauma fiction as a “recent journey of the concept of trauma from medical and scientific discourse to the field of literary studies” (Whitehead 4). Therefore, nowadays trauma fiction has become a genre, which evokes interest of the contemporary reader. As Vickroy states, “the twentieth century novel in particular developed a fuller view of inner experience. Trauma narratives add to these depictions through focalization (storytelling through a narrator’s or character’s perceptual angle)” (Vickroy 10). In this way, it becomes easier to empathize with the characters and understand what people were feeling through a specific historical period. The traumatic experience in the historic narratives is so harsh that barely any character experiences recovery after it. S/he often becomes more defensive and reaches “safe distance from intense emotions, or one learns to manage the emotions, not eliminate them” (Vickroy 16). Main events that have a big impact on the victim are “love and loss, death, and the loss of self-consequent on the commodification, objectification and disrespect that accompany the debilitating enforcement of social norms” (Vickroy 16). Circumstances like these provoke the demeanor and emotions of an individual that can reflect the traits of a traumatic individual. Whitehead discusses different ways of presenting trauma in literary texts, she analyzes the narratives of other writers and presents their style of writing trauma fiction and presents the way Cathy Caruth writes trauma narratives: Caruth knowingly risks the accusation of losing the specifics of an event in a generalizable condition, but far from seeking to minimize or downplay suffering, her work represents an important attempt to think through the hiatuses and dislocations which necessarily inhabit trauma (Whitehead 5).

This means that Caruth’s idea of creating a trauma narrative is writing a generalized story with gaps in the sequence of events, and this aberrant order provides the reader an opportunity to understand the traumatic experience. Caruth’s ideas are similar to Sigmund Freud’s. As Whitehead explains, “The traumatic incident is not fully acknowledged at the time that it occurs and only becomes an event at some later point of intense emotional crisis. Caruth’s understanding of trauma reworks ‘deferred action’ as belatedness and models itself on Freud’s conception of the non-linear temporal relation to the past” (in Whitehead 6; italic in the original). The real emotions and understanding of how the event affected one’s psychological condition appear only after the event. Therefore, “non-linear temporal relation to the past” appears in a text as well (in Whitehead 6). According to Whitehead, the narratives are written in a way that they become “broken” because traumatic experience creates “disruption of time” (Whitehead 5). Furthermore, as Whitehead explains, “the irruption of one time into another is figured by Caruth as form of possession or haunting” (Whitehead 6). This means that

7 the effectiveness of a trauma causes the feeling of being haunted. Whitehead clarifies her idea by quoting Pat Baker, “‘regeneration’ is not possible until the past has been worked through” (in Whitehead 6). Therefore, the traumatic memories and ideas related to them may be haunting a person for a long time. Whitehead proceeds with her observations about the broken narrative structures, she states that The crisis extends beyond the individual to affect the ways in which historical experience can be accessed at cultural level. The effects of the inherent latency of trauma can be discerned in the broken or fragmented quality of testimonial narratives which demand new structures of reading or reception (Whitehead 7).

By specifying this idea, one can note that the trauma can be felt only after some time has passed after the traumatic experience. Historical trauma affects the individual first, and later it can affect others as well, and traumatizes the whole culture. The delayed feeling of trauma causes one’s confusion. For this reason, the narrative requires specific way of writing, and its structure differs from other narratives. In this way, the readers can understand the main idea of a story better. Trauma fiction is an informative and useful genre, which can be valued for the provided information about the historical details of traumatic large-scale events that happened throughout the history. In addition to this, reading trauma fiction is an opportunity to understand what suffering and inner emotions were felt by the victims of different catastrophic periods. Historical events affected the lives of many people, and some consequences are felt even nowadays, for this reason, it is important to learn to analyze the details of these events. Different ways of writing and specific structures have been applied to present this information.

2.3 Historical Trauma in Contemporary Novels

The historical novel is a popular genre nowadays and it is widely analyzed in the academic sphere. Historical fiction attracts various readers from different backgrounds and it has many sub-genres. It is important to properly present historical information in the narrative. Jerome De Groot states that “the historical novelist similarly explores the dissonance and displacement between then and now, making the past recognizable but simultaneously authentically unfamiliar. To use Alessandro Manzoni’s metaphor, the historical novelist is required to give ‘not just the bare bones of history, but something richer, more complete’’’ (Groot 6) Consequently, the stories become more interesting, and readers are able to feel deeper emotions while they empathize with the experiences of the characters. Historical novels have particular features, which make them different from other genres.

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In historical fiction only some historical facts are taken and inserted into the story, other empty spaces are filled with fictional events and characters. Ernest Baker describes historical novels as “stories that in any way whatsoever portray the life of the past, even though actual persons and actual public events have no place in them” (in Groot 46). This fact helps the reader to understand that not every sentence in historical fiction can be stated as a historical fact, there are fictive characters and situations included in the story to create a narrative that reflects the attributes of historical narrative. Groot adds that “Historical novelists take the bones of ‘history’, some facts, some atmosphere, some vocabulary, some evidence, and weave the story within the gaps” (Groot 7). The fictional details attract reader’s attention and reading historical fiction becomes not only informative, but also an interesting and engaging activity. Historical novels are popular nowadays. Therefore, they are being analyzed by many scholars. Aurelija Daukšaitė’s wrote a dissertation, which analyzes and theorizes “trauma and memory as complex phenomena in the field of literary studies” (Daukšaitė 11). As Daukšaitė admits, the analysis was carried out because this phenomena “definitely needs more attention in scholarly research into literary studies in Lithuania” (Daukšaitė 11). Daukšaitė indicates the relation between trauma and memory: “a person does not experience trauma at the time of the traumatic event but later through repetitive and haunting memories, which is the reason that is it difficult to describe the trauma itself, since the experience is not stored in one’s memory straight away” (Daukšaitė 28). This means that trauma appears only after the traumatic event and can last for a long time by constantly reappearing in one’s thoughts. Daukšaitė also emphasizes the differences between direct and indirect confrontation with the trauma. She presents levels of witnessing: “the first one means that a person is an actual survivor who remembers the event, feelings, thoughts or even explicit details of the traumatic incident […] the second level of witnessing includes listening to traumatic narratives of others […] the third level seems to be witnessing how someone else is being traumatized” (Daukšaitė 35). These levels of witnessing suggest the idea that any narrator of the historical novel will belong to one of these levels. Aurelija Daukšaitė presents the functions of trauma narratives. She quotes Laurie Vickroy who writes that trauma narratives are “fictional narratives that help readers to access traumatic experience” and “go beyond presenting trauma as subject matter of character study” (in Daukšaitė 50). The readers receive an access to a closer examination of trauma. Daukšaitė presents literature of trauma as a “macro-genre”, and quotes Demaria and Daly who state that it is an “umbrella term covering various kinds of texts such as novels, autobiographies, pseudo-autobiographies, collections of testimonies and life stories, historical essays in fictional format, fiction in historical format, and their different mixing and intertwining” (in Daukšaitė 52).

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This is a wide genre offering many stories written by narrators who faced the historical traumatic events both directly and indirectly. Taking everything into account, historical novel consists not only of historical facts and true characters, but also it consists of imaginative situations, events and characters, which rejuvenate the story and render the interest and entertainment of a reader. The narrators of historical fiction can be affected by traumatic historical events both directly and indirectly. Historical novels are popular these days, and they are relevant to all people because it is important to know the history and traumatic events, which affected today’s world in many ways.

3 Socio-historical Context of the Novel Salt to the Sea

There are social and historical factors that form a socio-historical context of the novel Salt to the Sea. The novel is based on real historical facts of the events that happened during World War II. The social situation of the period and its context can be described by the collected historical facts. The ship Wilhelm Gustloff was torpedoed by the Russian submarine at the end of World War II. The situation was intense and affected the lives of many people. These historical circumstances are reflected in the plot of the novel Salt to the Sea (see Appendix A). John Toland presents the situation at the end of the World War II. As he states, “Hitler held almost the entire land mass of Europe as well as North Africa. His troops had ranged deep into Russia and controlled more territory than the Holy Roman Empire. Now, after nearly five and a half years of war, his vast empire was compressed to the very borders of Germany” (Toland 4). It was obvious that the situation at the end of the war was unfavorable for Germany. Germany’s Chancellor Hitler understood that the Russian Red Army was occupying the lands of Europe and their main target was Germany. The danger was felt by the members of the Nazi party. One of them, the leader of Nazi Party, Martin Bormann wrote about the fierce Russians in his letter. Toland quotes the start of his letter: “the Bolsheviks are ravaging everything. They regard rape as just a joke, and mass shootings – particularly in rural districts – as an everyday occurrence” (in Toland 30). The behavior of the Red Army was brutal and frightening. Reinhold Pflugfelder writes about the unfavorable position of East Prussians at that time. The author notes the idea that “not only was the retreating German army in big trouble in the winter of 1944 and spring of 1945, but so were the East German civilians. As Russian troops invaded from the east, vengeful atrocities inspired panic in German nationals, mostly East Prussian noncombatants” (Pflugfelder 98). Many people who were not engaged in fighting the war were in danger and tried to move away from the Red Army. 10

Pflugfelder presents their hardships during the runaway. As he proceeds, “there were people dying in snowstorms, quietly expiring by the side of the road or in holes in the ice […] more and more people were screaming across the vast snowy wasteland, terrified of the Russians and their cruel reprisals” (Pflugfelder 98). Not only were people suffering from the coldness of the harsh winter, but also they were scared to death because of the brutal Russian army. Rudolph Rummel presents the situation of the period at the end of World War II, he presents how the Red Army eliminated all the refugees who tried to save themselves and runaway from danger. As he states, “thousands were cut down by soviet artillery and strafing planes, machine-gunned on the roads, and run over by tanks […] or disappeared into holes in the ice created by bombs. Thousands more that tried to escape on overcrowded ships were killed when these ships were sunk by planes or submarines” (Rummel 298). Russians massively killed people in various ways without any hesitation, it was their purpose. German troops started to realize that they lost World War II; therefore, they started to organize the escape from the Soviet attackers. As Cathryn J. Prince states, “Days before the first bedraggled evacuees arrived in Gotenhafen, the German authorities ordered Friedrich Petersen, the Wilhelm Gustloff’s 63-year old captain, to acquire fuel, prepare to take refugees and get ready to sail westward to the German port of Kiel” (Prince 6). People from East Prussia were trying to avoid contact with them by all means possible. They were trying to escape the Soviet Army and their purpose was to reach the ship Wilhelm Gustloff and escape the dangerous land. As Prince states, “to the streams of refugees who first glimpsed the ship soaring several stories out of the water, the Wilhelm Gustloff appeared as a harbinger of hope” (Prince 5). The ship was supposed to be a safe way to reach a safe place. Toland concretizes the situation. As he states, “more than 30,000 of the people […] were trying to escape back to Germany by sea in four liners. Bound for a port near Hamburg, the convoy was just rounding the Hela Peninsula and leaving the Gulf of Danzig for the Baltic sea. The biggest of these ships, the 25,000 ton Wilhelm Gustloff, had never before carried so many passengers” (Toland 21). People were desperately trying to get in the ship, but they did not know what a gruesome destiny awaited them during the upcoming journey. The lawyer and historian Alfred de Zayas argues that the refugees knew the risk of getting into the ship. As he states, “they assumed the risk. They knew they could have been sunk […] On the other hand, the only reason they were on the ship is that it was either you try the ship or you stay in Nemmersdorf and get yourself raped and then murdered afterwards.” (Sinking the Gustloff: A Tragedy Exiled from Memory 00:32:29 -00:32:53). This means that the fleeing refugees had thought that it is the only way to escape the Red Army and they chose this path to save themselves from the harsh destiny.

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Wilhelm Gustloff was the only ship that took other direction than the others. As John Toland clarifies, “the rest of the convoy was skirting the coast of Pomerania to avoid Russian submarines, but the William Gustloff drew too much water and was on its own, except for a lone mine sweeper” (Toland 31). Other ships chose a path that was less risky and safer. The disaster of the ship was caused by a Russian warship. As David T. Zabecki et al. state, “It was sunk in the Baltic sea by the soviet submarine S-13, commanded by Captain Third Rank Alexander Marisenko (Zabecki et al. 1465). The soviet submarine S-13 left Hango naval base in Finland on January 11, and started following the ship Wilhelm Gustloff on January 30 (see Appendix B). The big tragic event was the sinking of the ship Wilhelm Gustloff. Stefan Theil and Andrew Nagorski state that It was the worst tragedy in maritime history, six times more deadly than the Titanic. When the German cruise ship Wilhelm Gustloff was hit by torpedoes fired from a Soviet submarine in the final winter of World War II, more than 10,000 people--mostly women, children and old people fleeing the final Red Army push into Nazi Germany--were packed aboard. The disaster, survived by only 1,200, was rarely mentioned for more than half a century (Theil and Nagorski 11).

The number of deaths during this historical event was enormous. The refugees and others had to walk a long and hard path, while trying to run away from the Soviets, and then they had to face this catastrophe and to look death in the eye. Only the small part of the passengers had survived, and this became a social catastrophe, which affected lives of many people, and left the scars in their hearts for a lifetime. The survivors of the sinking of Wilhelm Gustloff wanted to talk about the maritime disaster, but they could not because of the circumstances. One of the survivors was Eva Rothschild, and as she recalls, “you would like to start talking about it, but nobody listens, so you just keep quiet and don’t talk about it” (Sinking the Gustloff: A Tragedy Exiled from Memory 00:02:50-00:02:59). Therefore, the survivors did not speak about it for a long time and tried to move on with their lives. Rummel writes about the further destiny of the survivors. In Rummel’s words, “Many of the surviving refugees made it across the border of postwar Germany; some found temporary havens in Silesia, Pomerania, and other German territories; others were overtaken in flight by the Red Army” (Rummel 298). They were trying to find a safe place and to move further with their lives, even though in reality this goal was hardly achievable. Nevertheless, in her book Salt to the Sea, Ruta Sepetys proves the fact that people can stay strong and undergo all the challenges that their destiny has prepared for them.

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4 Representation of Historical Trauma in Ruta Sepetys’ Novel Salt to the Sea

Ruta Sepetys’ novel Salt to the Sea concentrates mainly on the experience of young adults who are forced to adapt to the circumstances and survive many atrocities. There are four main characters who tell this story. Their stories are written in a specific manner, the chosen structure of the novel corresponds with the features of a traumatic narrative. All the main characters have one thing in common, all of them are young and they are forced to mature much faster. They travel a long and hard path to the port of Gotenhafen, where the ship Wilhelm Gustloff is taking in the refugees. There are more reasons why they have to experience fast internal growth. These youngsters have secrets that have to be kept in order to stay safe and they could proceed with their journey with the group of other people. They become familiar with each other during the journey and create relationships, helping them to mentally and physically survive the harsh conditions. Every character experiences individual trauma and historical circumstances testify them all without an opportunity to escape their fate. This overall situation leads to the feeling of collective trauma.

4.1 The Structure of the Novel Salt to the Sea

Ruta Sepetys’ novel Salt to the Sea is a historical novel representing tragic events that caused both inner and physical suffering and traumatic experiences of the characters in the novel, and their story has features of a historical novel. The purpose of writing this type of novel is to reach the reader and help him realize the terrifying events that have been kept a secret for a long time. Ruta Sepetys explains to her readers: “When the survivors are gone we must not let the truth disappear with them. Please, give them a voice” (Sepetys: 383). She has a purpose to educate the readers about the experiences of the people who had to walk a long and hard path in order to escape all the dangers. Professor Laurie Vickroy has investigated the significance of trauma fiction. According to Vickroy, trauma fiction includes “fictional narratives that help readers to access traumatic experience” (in Daukšaitė 50). Trauma narratives present the traumas of people both on individual and social level. The reader is able to educate oneself by reading realistic and engaging narratives and hurtful experiences of the characters. As Whitehead states, there was a “recent journey of the concept of trauma from medical and scientific discourse to the field of literary studies” (Whitehead 4). One may notice that the term trauma itself became more complex than before, and the concept of trauma can cause a chaotic reaction of the writer and the readers. Contemporary trauma fiction has evolved and now it is being written in various different forms and

13 structures. Therefore, a particular structure is chosen as the best way to present all the challenges, difficulties, suffering and thoughts of the traumatized characters in the historical novel Salt to the Sea. There are several distinctive features that help to determine what structure was chosen to present the novel Salt to the Sea. To start with, Ruta Sepetys’ novel has a hundred and seventy-four chapters, and an author’s note at the end of it. Each of them is short, every chapter covers approximately from one to four pages. Another distinguishing feature of this novel is the way all the chapters are titled. There are four recurrent chapter titles in this novel. The titles are the first names of the four leading characters of the story. These titles are “Joana”, “Florian”, “Emilia” and “Alfred”. Every chapter is written in the first person, and every title of the chapter identifies whose thoughts, memories and experiences are represented in that particular chapter. In this way, the structure of the chapters signals “focalization” techniques (Vickroy 10). With reference to the presented ideas of Laurie Vickroy, this method of presenting inner perspective, point of view and emotions of a character is called “focalization” (Vickroy 10). All the main characters in the novel are very different and come from different backgrounds, but they are living in the same historical period and they have the same purpose, they all want to survive. The alternating chapters are as an opportunity for the reader to know what is happening in the heads of four different narrators at the same time. The shortness of the chapters and the sudden switch of the character who tells his own story are creating disturbance of a regular narrative order. The author uses “hiatuses” to expose the trauma in the story (Whitehead 5). In the novel Salt to the Sea, one of the four main characters speaks about his/her experiences and point of view in the first person, and then suddenly the chapter ends. Later, after a gap, a chapter with his thoughts appears again, after the interference of other characters. The change in focalization creates the effect of “dislocation” – a disturbance of the regular order of the text (Whitehead 5). In this way, Ruta Sepetys partly creates chaos, which represents the influence of traumatic experiences, and it is being felt by the reader. After the analysis of Anne Whitehead’s and Sigmund Freud’s ideas, one fact becomes clear – the sequence of the events in the novel Salt to the Sea is “non-linear”, and the order of events is “disrupted” (Whitehead 5). According to Whitehead, trauma itself is considered to be a “deferred action”, which is being felt only after some time passes, therefore, the traumatic events in the text are presented in an inconsistent manner as well (Whitehead 6). Ruta Sapetys’ historical novel Salt to the Sea has a particular structure, which has features of traumatic narrative structures. This structure was chosen with a purpose to impart the sufferings and experiences of the main characters to the readers with the help of a literary tool called “focalization”

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(Vickroy 10). The short chapters in the novel have the same alternating four titles, each one of them indicates, whose point of view will be presented. The alternating chapters create the disturbance of the regular text order; therefore, the text consists of many hiatuses and dislocations. Four main characters were chosen to present the story of the tragic period at the end of the World War II in Ruta Sepetys’ novel Salt to the Sea. These characters alternate during the whole narrative in the chapters that follow a particular content. Each of them tells his story in the first person in the chapter that is named after him/her. The main characters have different characteristics. Joana is a Lithuanian who was permitted to resettle in Germany, Emilia is a 15-year-old Polish girl who is carrying a baby and running away from Poland where the Russians are killing her fellow Poles. Florian is a Prussian art restorer who is secretly carrying an expensive statue that he has stolen from Nazis because they murdered his father, and Alfred is a Nazi trooper working in Wilhelm Gustloff, a German ship that later sank in the Baltic sea while carrying Germans, refugees from Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Prussia, Estonia and Croatia. All these characters have different backgrounds of their life, and their life was severely affected by the historical events. This caused trauma that cannot be easily forgotten, that is brutal and will be passed on to further generations. Therefore, the four contrasting point of views were chosen to present the horror and the thoughts of four different characters at the same time. The four alternating chapters “Joana”, “Florian”, “Emilia” and “Alfred” do not have a concrete sequence. The sequence of these chapters is formed according to the situations and events in the novel. The frequency of these chapters can be provided in statistical calculations. The chapter “Joana” appears in a text forty-seven times. There are fifty-one chapters with the title “Florian” in the novel. The chapter “Emilia” occurs in the text thirty-nine times. Lastly, there are thirty-seven chapters the title of which is “Alfred”. The calculation displays the fact that the most frequent title of the chapter in the novel Salt to the Sea is “Florian”, and the less frequent ones are “Joana”, “Emilia” and “Alfred”; however, all four chapter titles consistently alternate through the whole novel, so that the reader cannot actually notice the most frequent chapter title. In addition to this, the length of every chapter is different; therefore, the frequency of chapter titles does not disclose the actual dominating character. The first of the characters, whose thoughts start the story, is Joana. She is a 21-year-old Lithuanian nurse who feels guilt throughout the story. Joana provides medical help to others, takes care of Emilia who is expecting a child, and later starts a relationship with Florian. Florian and Joana take care of Emilia’s daughter and the little boy Klaus after Emilia and the shoe poet, the aged German shoemaker who flees East Prussia

15 together with the whole group of refugees, pass away. Joana and Florian have no other choice but to take the role of parents. The second main character is Florian. He is a wholehearted artist from Prussia who has been working with Erich Koch and Dr. Lange for a long time. Only after many years he realizes that he was restoring art works that were stolen. He feels anger after he realizes this fact because is feeling deceived. His father is murdered during the mission against Hitler, which also triggers Florian, he develops hard feelings against Hitler and he steals a historical art item from his workplace. Notwithstanding the hurtful events in his past, Florian starts a relationship with Joana and creates a family with her later. When Florian starts to feel a human connection, he grows emotionally, becomes sincerer and kind-hearted. This is reflected in the ship sinking scene where he is helping others to survive. The third main character is Emilia. She is a young teenage girl. Emilia is only 15 years old, but she has already experienced her mother’s death when she was nine years old. She has to leave her home country Poland because of the widespread massacre in her city Nemmersdorf. After experiencing the psychological trauma, she is also raped by a bunch of Russian soldiers. Despite these brutal facts, she later manages to cope with her experience. Emilia’s strength reveals when she saves her child and the little boy in the sinking Wilhelm Gustloff. She even tries to save Alfred who tried to kill her because she is Polish and Hitler is against Polish people. Lastly, she dies as a grown woman after the sinking of Wilhelm Gustloff, before her death she ascertains that her daughter Halinka is safe. Alfred is the fourth main character; he is a German soldier working in a Wilhelm Gustloff ship. Alfred is feeling fear throughout the story. He strives to be a good German soldier and hopes to finally feel worthy. Alfred’s father does not accept him after the Hitler Youth refuses to take him in. Alfred is a real Hitler follower: he is a Nazi and a racist, prejudiced and is prone to abnormal and violent social behavior. He stands on his own and does not make a close relationship with anybody. He was only in love with Hannelore, although she rejects him and Alfred cold-heartedly discloses her to the Nazi Youth that Hannelore is half Jewish. These characters have different personalities that were affected by the period of World War II, which was full of deaths, suffering and fighting for life. They experienced traumas that evoked other parts of their personalities, some of them revealed their good qualities, and others just caused their emotional and behavior problems. Each of them has a different life story, and has to face his individual tragedy, but all of them are affected by the historical circumstances, which results in their collective suffering. All their experiences are narrated in the first-person narratives.

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4.2 Individual Trauma in the Novel Salt to the Sea

Each of the characters in Ruta Sepetys’ novel Salt to the Sea experienced individual trauma. It is mostly reflected in the stories of the four main characters - Joana, Emilia, Florian and Alfred. Following the ideas of Laurie Vikcroy, it can be noticed that all the characters in the novel experience intense situations, which evoke “cognitive functioning and can bring lasting psychological disruption” (Vickroy 15). In Jack Saul’s view, they cannot handle the “blow to the psyche that breaks through one’s defenses so suddenly and with such brutal force that one cannot react to it effectively” (Saul 3). Situation like this evokes the feeling of helplessness. In the novel Salt to the Sea every main character tells his story from his own point of view. According to Vickroy, in literary terms this action is called “focalization” (Vickroy10). To start with, every leading character in the novel Salt to the Sea had a hard path during the period of the end of World War II and it is represented in the narratives of every character. In the novel, the opening sentences of the chapters are as labels setting the tone for the chapter. The opening sentence of the first chapter about Joana is “Guilt is a hunter” (Sepetys 1). Joana left her home in Lithuania in1941. Deep inside she feels guilt for the fact that she does not know what is happening back home. She hears the voice of conscience in her head: “It’s all your fault” (Sepetys 1). Thoughts like these are hard to handle for a refugee, marching with a group of other people with the same destiny. It was a cold winter in East Prussia in 1945. With the hope of finding a safe place, the group is travelling forward and Joana notices a dead woman: “She was dead, frozen solid, but the thought of tanks rolling over her was more than I could bear” (Sepetys 2). This is an individual suffering of Joana, her inner feelings and emotions that she has to handle by herself in harsh circumstances. Joana was a nurse back home in Lithuania and her role in the group of refugees is the same: “We had been walking for days and both strength and morale waned. The bombs had set nerves on edge. I moved from body to body, treating blisters, wounds, frostbite. But I had no treatment for what plagued people the most. Fear” (Sepetys 21). She is trying to cope with this situation as best as she can, but she cannot avoid the feeling of helplessness and uncertainty. Joana does not know how her parents are dealing with the circumstances of war because they are far away from her. She tells the Prussian soldier Florian about her uneasiness: “I try so hard not to think negatively […] My mother is in a refugee camp in Germany, but my father and brother are still in Lithuania. Mother thinks they’re fighting in the forests. I’ve heard that Stalin has done unspeakable things to Lithuanians” (Sepetys 170). Joana can only draw conclusions from the rumors that she heard about Lithuania, and she knows that Russians can do harmful things to her family at any moment.

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Before trying to board the ship, the giant woman Eva and Joana talks about Joana’s easy pass to the ship. Joana is not comfortable to speak about the fact that she has, in Eva’s words, “a letter from the doctor in Insterburg saying [she’s] good at dealing with blood and guts” (Sepetys 175). Joana does not want to spread this news because others did not get the same letter as her. Joana explains to Eva: “The whole thing is unfair, Eva. You know that. Hitler allowed me into Germany. He thinks some Baltic people are ‘Germanizable.’ But for every person like me that Hitler brought in, he pushed some poor soul, like Emilia, out [...] I didn’t feel lucky. I felt guilty” (Sepetys 175). During this conversation it becomes clear why Joana is driven by guilt throughout the novel. She thinks it is unfair that Hitler chose her as a privileged persona and such youngsters like Emilia are being left out in the situation, with the risk of not entering the ship. On the ship, Joana examines her face in the mirror: My face was caked with soot, my eyes ringed with grief from the things I had seen. I had lived for twenty-one years, but the recent months had changed me. I scrubbed at the dried blood and grime beneath my fingernails, thinking of the remorse I would never be able to wash down a sink (Sepetys 223).

The mirror as a symbol reflects the truth, therefore, Joana sees her true self when she looks into the mirror. She sees how the stressful situations have affected her inner condition and her looks. She carries the burden within her, and it will be hard for her to eliminate the pain she feels after all she have seen and experienced. When a colleague doctor on the ship asks Joana how many lives she has lost, a thought pops into her head: “I’ve lost my family, my language, and my country. I’ve lost it all, I wanted to say” (Sepetys 228; italic in the original). Although in this moment her losses do not matter. Now she is obliged to save lives of other injured people and stay strong throughout the journey. When the ship Wilhelm Gustloff departs, Joana and Florian start talking about another reason why Joana feels guilt. She confesses to Florian that she thinks she is responsible for the death of her cousin Lina. Joana tells Florian how Russians deported her cousin Lina to Siberia: She was my best friend […] I wrote her a letter, explaining that we were on Stalin’s list because my father had joined an anti-Soviet group. I gave the letter to our cook and asked her to mail it. I never should have put those things in writing. After we fled, the NKVD ransacked our house. My father’s secret contact wrote to us and said the NKVD had my letter (Sepetys 309).

Joana’s written letter was informative for the Soviets and they used it for their purposes, they wanted to track Joana’s family because of her father’s activity. She tells Florian that after reading the letter the Soviets were confused and they did not find her family, they “located Lina’s family and took them instead […] they were arrested and deported to Siberia” (Sepetys 310). After this incident Joana does not feel calm anymore. As she

18 admits, “I feel so guilty. My freedom cost her family their lives” (Sepetys 311). Joana tries to believe that there is a possibility that Lina’s family is alive. Although Joana did not have such intentions, she still feels guilty because of what the Soviets had done to her cousin. The feeling of guilt adds to Joana’s traumatic experiences. The second chapter has an opening sentence about Florian’s inner state: “Fate is a hunter” (Sepetys 3). A young man from East Prussia, also trying to survive and escape Russian army, tries to run away from them. As he recounts, “I had been on the run for days and my mind felt as weak as my legs. The hunted preyed on the fatigued and weary. I had to rest” (Sepetys 4). He describes his first confrontation with the Polish girl Emilia: “I stood in the forest cellar, my gun fixed on the dead Russian. The back of his head had departed from his skull. I rolled him off the woman” (Sepetys 9). The actions that he had to perform while trying to defend Emilia were requiring inner strength. Florian does not know where his sister is: “Anni. Where is she? Was she too in some dark forest hole with a gun to her head?” (Sepetys 15). These thoughts are full of his obscurity. When Florian and Emilia reach the barn full of refugees, the nurse Joana sews Florian’s wound that was full of shrapnel. She notices his physical and psychological condition: “His face spoke of pain – physical pain like I had seen in the hospital but also emotional pain, like I had seen in my parents” (Sepetys 41). Florian was upset and the Lithuanian nurse Joana empathetically felt it. Florian was deceived by the man he worked for, Dr. Lange. Florian feels anger and is disappointed about it because he did not see the deceitfulness of Dr. Lange at first. Florian is frustrated in view of the fact that he worked so hard for a wicked person and noticed it only after some time, now Florian has unpleasant thoughts: “What an idiot I was. If I could detect a flawed painting so quickly, why had it taken me so long to see the truth about Dr. Lange?” (Sepetys 88). Florian was great at his work, he put a lot of effort, and Dr. Lange let him down. Florian recalls a conversation with his father: “A traitor to your soul. Those were the last words my father said to me. Not because he was finished, but because I stormed out of the house and refused to listen. When I returned months later, panicked and in need of his counsel, it was too late” (Sepetys 107; italic in the original). Florian feels guilty because he did not listen to his father and now he has to face all the difficulties without his father. He tells Joana why he is angry at the Nazis: “My father made maps. He worked for the men who tried to assassinate Hitler. So the Nazis killed my father and sent a bill to our house. Three hundred reichsmarks for his execution. […] Nazis wanted me to pay for murdering my father” (Sepetys 287). The absurd of this situation forms Florian’s attitude toward Hitler and the Nazis, and determine his further actions. Later, Florian understands what bad deeds they were doing: “Koch and Lange

19 weren’t saving the treasures of Europe. They were stealing them. And, unknowingly, I had been helping” (Sepetys 194). Before understanding it, Florian helps Loch and Lange in one more operation. Florian had to supervise the protection of the Amber Room, “a glittering chamber of amber, jewels, gold, and mirrors. In 1941 the Nazis stole it from the Catherine Palace in Pushkin, near Leningrad. Packed into twenty-seven crates, the Amber Room was the culmination of Hitler’s artistic dreams” (Sepetys 125). Dr. Lange and Gauleiter Koch reassures Florian that they are doing a proper work, although it is not true. As Florian recalls, “As the Russian forces approached, Dr. Lange assured me that moving twenty-seven crates containing the Amber Room meant preserving the riches of the Reich. In reality, he and Koch had plans of their own. They were hiding the room for themselves and, in the process, implicating me in the biggest heist of all time” (Sepetys 125).

Florian still decides to help them, although later he understands that it was convenient for Dr. Lange to choose him as assistance for such a dangerous work: “We dug a secret bunker deep beneath the castle and locked the crates inside […] the door to the cellar was undetectable. But I knew where it was. I also had the key.” (Sepetys 126). One of the crates is different, as it has an amber swan in it. Florian decides to take the swan: “People had fought for it, killed it, died for it. And I had it” (Sepetys 126). The only concern was if Dr. Lange decided to search for the key that Florian has. Florian wonders: “Had he discovered my betrayal?” (Sepetys 126). This is Florian’s secret, which he now carries with uneasiness. On the ship, Florian misses his sister and remembers his home: “I thought of our warm kitchen at home in Tilsit, the soft ring of the lids trembling on their pots, and my sister’s laughter echoing throughout the house” (Sepetys 278). Pleasant memories evoke the concern about his sister Anni: “She would be nearly sixteen now. Would I recognize her if I passed her on the street? Where had she been and what had she experienced?” (Sepetys 278). Florian has many questions about his sister and is worried about her. The third chapter about the 15-year old Polish girl Emilia starts with the thought: “Shame is a hunter” (Sepetys 5). In the story, Emilia was driven by shame. Throughout the whole novel Emilia wears a “pink hat”, which symbolizes purity and young age, but unfortunately this young girl has to face many traumatizing situations. She is also running away from Russian and German persecutors. When Florian kills the Russian at the beginning of the story and saves her, her thoughts are full of obscurity: “I lowered my arm and saw my sleeve, splattered with Russian blood. Would this ever end? Tears stirred inside of me” (Sepetys 12). She is full of frustration because she was running away for a long time and the end to this stressful period was not even close.

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Emilia’s mother “died giving birth to what would have been [her] younger brother” (Sepetys 59). A young girl Emilia has to be brave walking a hard path alone without her family. She needs strength, and she feels her mother is close to her: “I felt Mama among the trees […] I talked to the trees as I walked, hoping their branches would carry messages up to Mama and let her know what I have done, and most of all, that I would try to be brave” (Sepetys 59). The idea of her mother being close to her allows Emilia not to give up in her difficult journey to a safe place. She longs for her home: “My legs ached, tired of walking. I missed school. I loved my desk, my teachers, the smell of freshly sharpened pencils waiting patiently in their box” (Sepetys 68). The journey for Emilia is challenging and requires bravery. In order to save Florian from the armed German soldier, she shoots him and stands “cemented in shock, pink gloves on the gun, her body trembling” (Sepetys 70). The girl does not get flustered in this menacing situation and saves her fellow traveler. Later, when they proceed their journey together with Florian, Emilia cannot stop thinking about the incident with a gun, which triggered her other shocking memories: “Boots. Screaming. Glass shattering. Guns firing. Skull against wood. I tried to push them away. Please go away” (Sepetys 76; italic in the original). Her hurtful memories of past events come back, even though she tries to bury them deeply in her mind. On the ship, Wilhelm Gustloff, Emilia is terrified because she has no documents, only the fake ones of the Latvian woman. She is her late pregnancy, the most challenging period. The 15-year old is afraid to get caught: “My panic seemed to increase the pain and cramping below my waist. […] I hated the ship. It was steel, lifeless and hollow inside […] boats of steel were boats of war” (Sepetys 217). Emilia feels panic in the ship and at the same time she has no choice, there is no other place to go. It becomes physically challenging for Emilia to be on the ship because of her pregnancy. When Emilia’s labor starts on the ship, she manages to reveal Joana that “there is no August”, she means that August was not her child’s father with whom she is in love with (Sepetys 223). She was sexually abused by Russian soldiers who came to the farm of Mr. Kleist’s family. Emilia stayed there with recommendations of her father. Now she remembers the cruel Russian soldiers again: “they dragged me to the cold cellar” (Sepetys 239). Emilia tried to forget this fact and she had done it effectively until now, when she felt the need to reveal the hurtful truth to Joana. After the ship Wilhelm Gustloff sinks and Emilia is in the raft, while her baby is in the other raft with Florian, Emilia and the wandering boy, she longs for her baby. She sees drowned children in the water and thinks: “It was my punishment. Honor lost. Everything lost. Shame is a hunter. My shame was all around me now” (Sepetys 351). Emilia feels shame for what has happened to her, and she considers her situation as a punishment.

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The fourth chapter starts with Alfred’s thoughts “Fear is a hunter” (Sepetys 7). Alfred is a 17-year old German soldier, trying to avoid the fear that keeps chasing him. He works at the port of Gotenhafen and in his mind he writes letters to Hannelore, the woman he is attracted to. He feels the tension of the preparation for the evacuation of the ships called “Hannibal” from Gotenhafen: “Anxiety swelled in the harbor with each minute that passed […] now the vile Russians were closing in. Refugees, weary souls displaced from their homes, would throng toward the port, desperate to flee the Communists” (Sepetys 65). Alfred has to be prepared to take all of them into the ship Willhelm Gustloff. He feels loneliness on the ship before the boarding, but thoughts about sweet Hannelore keep him cheerful: “Yes, life can be lonely for the truly exceptional, darling. So I build my own nest and feather it with thoughts of you” (Sepetys 151; italic in the original). Alfred tries to settle in the ship and his fantasies about Hannelore help him to stay positive. His letters to her are confessional and revealing everything that he feels and is afraid of. She is his motivation, and his thoughts are dedicated to her: “after all, everything I achieve, everything I have done, it is all for you. For you and for Germany” (Sepetys 267; italic in the original). Alfred hopes to be awarded after the Wilhelm Gustloff arrives in Kiel. In his mind, Alfred writes to his love Hannelore about the fact that his love for her is one-sided, and he describes the source of his fear: “How, Lore, could I truly love you? I could not, I should not – not after what you said, what you so rudely announced to everyone in the street. Yet the infatuation preserves and satiates me in an indescribable way. Perhaps it fences the fear. So I cling to it. You see, fear is a hunter” (Sepetys 353; italic in the original). Alfred fears the truth and realizes that Hannelore does not feel the same as him. Hannelore rejected him before and he decided to report to the Nazis the fact that Hannelore is half Jewish and that her father is Jewish. The Nazis captured his beloved Hannelore because of Alfred’s racist action and the desire to please Hitler. Alfred has a deep connection with Hannelore in his mind, although it is doubtful that Hannelore is still alive. Taking everything into account, every focalizer in the novel Salt to the Sea experiences individual trauma. The factors that caused individual trauma are World War II, the fact that every character had to leave his/her home and brutal conditions that they have to face while traveling to Wilhelm Gustloff. All these factors lead to inner suffering and reflection that evoked individual trauma. The narrators of the story feel guilt, fear, and shame, and believe that fate can be a hunter. All these feelings arouse from the events, which happened during the period of World War II. These characters suffer from individual traumas that are the aftereffects of crucial historical events. Alfred feels loneliness, fear and his imaginary communication with his love Hannelore to him is like an escape from the harsh reality.

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4.3 Collective Trauma in the Novel Salt to the Sea

According to the ideas of researchers Robert J. Ursano, Brian. G McCaughey, and Carol S. Fullerton, one may notice that the trauma of the characters in the novel Salt to The Sea is triggered by “one of the oldest manmade traumas – war” (Ursano, et al. 6). During the end of World War II, the sequence of historical events led to the terrible consequences both to the health and psychological condition of the characters in Ruta Sepetys’ novel. War affects everyone, therefore, they experience collective trauma. Collective trauma may be felt by people of a certain nationality. At the beginning of the novel Salt to the Sea, Emilia speaks about the collective trauma of the Polish people. When she meets Florian for the first time, she is afraid of Florian’s attitude towards her as a Polish person because she feels marginalized: “He would want nothing to do with me. Adolf Hitler had declared that Polish people were subhuman. We were to be destroyed” (Sepetys 11). The cruel treatment of Polish nationality frightens Emilia; she knows that the Nazis seek to eradicate Polish people. Joana also understands Emilia’s situation: “Hitler was pushing out Polish girls like Emilia to make room for “Baltic Germans,” people with German heritage” (Sepetys 30). Hitler accepted only Germans. Emilia thinks about the methods the Nazis and the Soviets used to conquer Poland: “The Nazis sent our people to ghettos and concentration camps. The Soviets sent our people to gulags and Siberia. I was nine years old when it started […] But how long could I play this game? […] Once the war ended, which side would be the right side for a Pole?” (Sepetys 202). Emilia’s thoughts represent the thoughts of every Pole during World War II, she is uncertain about her future and does not know what is going to happen to her and other Poles after the war, and whether the Soviets or the Nazis will win the World War II. Joana’s thoughts about the massacre in the city of Nemmersdorf also signal the hate of the Russian Red Army for the Germans and other nationalities: “A few months ago the Russians stormed the village and reportedly committed vicious acts of brutality. Women were nailed to barn doors, children mutilated. News of the massacre spread quickly and sent people into a panic” (Sepetys 30). Mainly German people were the victims of this massacre, and brutality of Russians caused fear of many refugees. As Robert J. Ursano et al. notice, the process of healing trauma may involve being together with one’s family or with people who are together in the same situation in the context of trauma: “Social support is the comfort, assistance, and information an individual or group receives from others” (Ursano et al. 18). Therefore, the ones that are destined to survive the same circumstances seek for the feeling of collectiveness and try to heal mentally together. As Joana starts talking about her refugee journey, she mentions that she is

23 not alone in the road and tries to stay in a group because it is safer. As she defines, “we trudged farther down the narrow road. Fifteen refugees […] A blind girl ahead of me, Ingrid [...] I had my sight, but we shared a handicap: we both walked into a dark corridor of combat, with no view of what lay ahead” (Sepetys 2016: 13). Joana sees her fellow travelers as people in the same situation as her, encountering same obstacles and facing the same feeling of uncertainty. Joana describes how they became the refugees: “It was clear that [the German army was] sinking under the weight of the Allied forces, but Hitler’s regional leader, Gauleiter Koch, refused to allow civilians to evacuate. Rather than fall into the brutal hands of Russian marauders, some people defied the Reich and left without orders, like us” (Sepetys 60). It was a safer choice; the refugees had chosen it with hope to escape the violent Red Army. Joana thinks about other refugees, people of the same destiny as her: “I thought of the countless refugees trekking toward freedom. How many millions of people had lost their home and family during the war?” (Sepetys 14). Joana feels that she is not alone in this situation. The sense of collectivity creates the sense of hope as well. Joana thinks about the plans of the whole group, she thinks about them finding a safe place: “We dreamed the wealthy family [East Prussian aristocrats] would take us in, ladle thick soup into porcelain bowls, and let us warm our frozen toes by fire” (Sepetys 48). Together they suffer the cold weather, poor conditions, and together they dream of surviving it and being in a warm house. When the refugees start searching for the house, they feel the low temperature. The cold is unbearable for the whole group of refugees. Joana senses the cold: “The temperature dropped and exposed parts of my face began to sting. We had been walking for over six hours. Eva complained incessantly. She hated the trek, she hated the cold, she hated the Russians, she hated the war” (Sepetys 57). The road is long and the giant woman Eva feels loathing for the historical circumstances. The cold winter in the novel refers to the harsh circumstances, challenges, pain and death. The group suffers from these factors collectively. When the group arrives to the safe place, they feel the moral responsibility to share what they have. Florian observes them ant sees that “they didn’t have much food, but what they had, they shared” (Sepetys 86). They know that they have to stick together as a team and help each other. Later, the group walked through the ice to reach the port. After the blind girl Ingrid passes away by getting shot and sinking in the cold water, Florian wonders why he is still travelling with them: “I could have walked across the ice myself, without the burden of my group. They would have tried to save the blind girl. Maybe they all would have drowned in the process. That would have been so much easier. And so much harder” (Sepetys 141-142). Florian saves Joana and Emilia who try to reach the drowning Ingrid, and wonders if all the effort is worth it.

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Ultimately, he understands that it would psychologically difficult to leave the group and walk on his own. The group was travelling to the port though the ice, then by the boat, and when they finally arrive to the port, Joana is shocked by the view that they are seeing: We arrived in Gotenhafen at dusk, our faces red and chapped from the wind on the water. […] For weeks we had trekked to get to the port. Nothing could have prepared us for what we found there. Horses and animals, lost or abandoned by their owners, roamed helpless in the streets. Gray naval supply trucks zoomed about. Crates, boxes, luggage, and provisions lined the quays […] People screamed out for food and lost family members” (Sepetys 152).

The journey to the port of Gotenhafen was exhausting and their skin was harmed by the cold weather. The observation of the port was even more shocking. Shocked and confused people as well as a large amount of things were in the sight of the group. After seeing the crowds of people, the shoe poet decides to stay together: “We must stick together” (Sepetys 152). This idea of the shoe poet shows the group’s sense of collectivity or a need for it. The group has already created a bond between each other and they understand that the journey on the ship will be hard, therefore, they cannot split. When the Wilhelm Gustloff starts sinking, the shoe poet wants to find Emilia and Joana: “Look for our girls […] Where are the girls?” (Sepetys 331). Even in the ship catastrophe they want to save themselves together, this is a proof of how close they have become throughout their traumatic journey. The sense of collectiveness appears to a group of refugees after the common experience of tragic events and trying to survive harsh conditions together. They tend to help each other, therefore, they feel safer in a group. Although there are traumatic moments when a person loses his morality and an instinct of survival arises. During these traumatic moments, a person stops thinking about the collectivity and thinks mainly about his well-being. Taking into account Jack Saul’s ideas, “Trauma, loss and displacement […] disrupt social networks and shared sentiments and may cause a collapse of morale” (Saul 5). Saul also states that when the community suffers from collective trauma, the concept “‘we’ no longer exist as a connected pair or as linked cells in a larger communal body” (in Saul 4). This often leads to social division of a group. In addition to this, racism and irreverent behavior towards others may become acute. The hostility toward other refugees, which formed in harsh and traumatic circumstances, is visible in the behavior of Florian, when he and Emilia enter the barn full of refugees. He tries to suppress his sympathy for Joana and others: “I closed my eyes. I didn’t want to look at the pretty girl. I needed to be able to kill her, kill them all, if I had to. My body begged for sleep but my mind warned me not to trust these people” (Sepetys 25). He feels tension because he mistrusts all these people and knows that people can be unpredictable during this dangerous period. When Florian sees that 15-year old Emilia is pregnant, he wants 25 to stop worrying about her health: “I couldn’t afford to care about the girl. She was just another tragedy of war” (Sepetys 80). Florian does not want to develop close feelings to Emilia or others because in the presence of war every person fights for himself. When the Polish girl Emilia and Florian leave the group of refugees, and after Joana has sewn up Florian’s wound, the group starts thinking that it is for the best. The shoe poet asserts that Florian is a deserter, because, according to him, “his boots were military issue” (Sepetys 48). The shoe poet starts thinking about the inconveniences the Polish girl and a Prussian deserter would cause to the whole group: “No one will let us in with a deserter and a Pole” (Sepetys 49). Eva is a woman “in her fifties and giant, like a Viking” (Sepetys 28). Eva agrees that the journey for Florian and Emilia is very risky: “A deserter and a Pole? I’m sorry, but they’ll be dead on the road in a day” (Sepetys 49). The group of refugees understands that deserters and Polish people are in a more serious danger, therefore, they stop being sorry for the ones that separated from the group. The refugees are thinking about their survival and the concept of “us” as a group becomes distorted. In Jeffrey C. Alexander’s words, “Cultural trauma occurs when members of a collectivity feel they have been subjected to a horrendous event that leaves indelible marks upon their group consciousness, marking their memories forever and changing their future identity in fundamental and irrevocable ways” (Alexander 1). Therefore, the sinking of Wilhelm Gustloff was the main horrifying event in the story because of the tragic fates of thousands of people that were in it. As Ingrida Eglė Žindžiuvienė states, “The place of trauma can itself be a powerful symbol, on which collective memory is constructed” (Žindžiuvienė 71). The main event of the story is the sinking of Wilhelm Gustloff; theferore, the ship and the location represent the main place of trauma. Alfred reports everything to Hannelore, a woman he likes, and in one of his narratives Alfred describes Wilhelm Gustloff, the ship that he works in: I am confirmed to sail on the MV Wilhelm Gustloff, the most impressive ship in the harbor! She is enormous, two hundred and eight meters long, fifty-six meters high, and only eight years old. A true beauty. She was originally built for vacation cruising and has amenities I think I would enjoy, such as pool, a formal dining room, a ballroom, and a library […] the ship even has a movie theater, a music room, a beauty salon, and a promenade deck completely enclosed in glass (Sepetys 84; italic in the original).

The size and the variety of rooms fascinate Alfred. Despite her magnificence, now the ship is used for war purposes. He also writes to Hannelore from the ship and emphasizes that the “Gustloff will sail for the German port of Kiel, an expected journey of forty-eight hours. I am wondering how she will fare as a heavy- weather boat, considering she was built for calm voyages under sunny skies and has not sailed for four

26 years” (Sepetys 150; italic in the original). Alfred does not truly realize what challenges they are actually going to face in the upcoming journey. Joana observes the trek to the port and sees how the war has affected it: “A thick procession of wagons and evacuees clogged the road to the port. The gray stone buildings lining the cobbled street were pockmarked, missing their doors and windows. Interior rooms were now visible, like a broken dollhouse” (Sepetys 215). Now the picturesque buildings are ravaged and the view is not harmonious anymore as well as the life of all the people during the war. Joana describes the ship from the inside: “the ship was a floating city. A warm one. Enormous would be an understatement” (Sepetys 215). She is amazed by the large amount of people on the huge ship, and even compares the ship to a “floating city”, full of people who suffered a lot and have a hope to reach a safe place (Sepetys 215). When the ship starts to depart from the port, Alfred describes the overall situation after the ship leaves the port: “The weather, however, is proving a challenge. The winds blow fierce. We are battling quite vicious snowstorm. […] We are nearly ten times over capacity” (Sepetys 298; italic in the original). It seems that the journey will be challenging. After the ship has sailed and the passengers are relieved that they can rest from the long walking, something horrible happens. As Stefan Theil and Andrew Nagorski state, “the German cruise ship Wilhelm Gustloff was hit by torpedoes fired from a Soviet submarine” (Theil and Nagorski 11). In the novel, Joana feels three sudden loud noises and a sudden shake: BANG! A massive jolt. My head hit the wall. Lights flickered. Emilia was on the floor. What was happening? BANG! Total blackness. Women screamed. BANG! Alarm bells shrilled. The entire maternity ward suddenly tilted toward the front of the ship. Dim emergency lights began to glow (Sepetys 316; italic in the original).

The passengers are in shock. Florian is confused, but suddenly he realizes: “And then I knew. Torpedoes” (Sepetys 319). Emilia quickly reacts to the situation; she starts giving everyone life vests and tries to encourage others to save themselves: “I called out to the women. ‘Hurry! Take your coats. Wrap up. The cold will kill you’. Was anyone listening? Did they understand me? Didn’t they realize that we had to get out of the metal container? (Sepetys 321). Emilia is sharp-minded and she rationally reacts to the situation, while others are in shock. She understands that there is not much time left to save themselves from the sinking ship. The ship Wilhelm Gustloff is now in a sloping position. As Alfred notices, The ship’s list increased dramatically. Things began sliding down the angled floor. Suddenly, the grand piano in the music room rolled fast, crushing the little girl with the bear in its path before crashing into the wall and releasing a discordant cry. Passengers shrieked and wailed, trying to help the girl who now resembled smashed fruit (Sepetys 322).

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People start to panic after they feel the ship’s instability and see the shocking view of the sliding furniture. It is hard to think rationally in such an intense situation, although thousands of passengers understand that they have to save themselves and climb to the upper deck. The number of people in the corridor is enormous and because of their fast pace people start to inevitably hurt each other. Florian observes the behavior of other passengers while he was climbing up the stairs with the shoe poet and the wandering boy: The width of the crowd knocked the fire extinguisher from the wall in the stairwell. It fell and exploded, sending foam everywhere. People began to slip and fall. Others simply scrambled over them. I felt the crunch of bodies underfoot in the dark and the little boy’s panting breaths in my hair. […] People grabbed and clawed at my back (Sepetys 324).

The aroused panic leads to inhuman behavior, the passengers start to think about themselves and follow their survival instincts, they do not care about getting others hurt. In this situation, there are no collective actions while facing the trauma. In the face of fear people do not cooperate, they try to save themselves. The passengers understand that there is not much time left until the ship sinks. One sailor explains the situation to Alfred: “three torpedoes. E deck, the engine room, and the forward compartments are destroyed” (Sepetys 327). Alfred critically reconsiders the possibility of surviving this catastrophe: “Torpedo strike: Approximately 9:15 p.m. Ship’s capacity: 1,463. Passengers on board: 10,573. Lifeboats: 22. But then I remembered. Ten of the lifeboats were missing” (Sepetys 328). There were only 12 lifeboats for such a large number of passengers. It was impossible for everyone in the ship to survive. The shoe poet and Florian finally find Joana and Emilia on the deck, when the boats are being lowered into the water. This is how Florian describes the situation: “The few remaining boats were filling fast. […] A sailor helped Joana down a rope ladder into the lifeboat. She reached up for the [Emilia’s] baby. The Polish girl refused. She motioned for me to get into the swaying boat” (Sepetys 336). The Polish girl wishes that Florian would hold her baby on the boat, she gives her baby to Florian with the possibility of never seeing her baby again. When there is only one seat left, they take the wandering boy into it. Florian understands that he had left his pack that was supposed to be a tool of revenge against Hitler and Dr. Lange: “Emilia was still on deck. I was holding her baby. Alfred was still on deck. He was holding my pack” (Sepetys 336). Screaming and calling the shoe poet, the wandering boy Klaus fell straight down from the ship into the water and tried to swim to their boat, but suddenly, Joana grasps the tragic moment: “Our blessed shoe poet. Our Opi. Our one light in the darkness. He was gone” (Sepetys 338). The feeling of loss and pain becomes present, and the passengers in boats cannot feel calm that they are in the boats. All they see is a shocking view of people trying to save themselves and then drowning in the cold sea.

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Emilia and Alfred try to save themselves as well. Alfred confronts Emilia and she guides him to the boats, then Alfred notices: “No operable boats remained […] we passed two rafts, stuck together with ice. She began kicking at them frantically, to dislodge them from the deck. One of the rafts came loose. The girl pulled me down onto it. And then we began to slide” (Sepetys 339). This is the only way for them to save themselves and they take this opportunity. When their raft is already in the water, Emilia wants to help other passengers, but it becomes impossible: “an enormous wave lifted the raft and pulled us away from the sinking ship. […] I watched from the raft as the beautiful deep began to swallow the massive boat of steel. In one large gulp” (Sepetys 341). The ship sinks quickly and it almost disappears from the sight. Emilia feels powerless over the greatness of the ship. Now only the small part of the ship is still over the water. Florian looks at the people trapped in the ship: “The tail of the ship was all that remained sticking out of the water. People dangled from the railings, their legs swinging wildly. The glass-enclosed sundeck at the back of the ship was packed with hundreds of trapped passengers […] we watched in the horror as people behind the glass began to drown” (Sepetys 346). The view of the sinking people is terrifying. People that are lucky enough to receive a seat in the rafts have to look at the horrible view of others who are were sinking and suffering in the cold water, many of them are already dead. Joana expresses how frightening is the view she sees: “Floating in the see of black, we were forced to witness the massive and grotesque deaths of thousands of people. […] Thousands of people jumping, kicking, gulping. Seawater filling mouths and nostrils, collapsing lungs. High waves, angry sea, snow and wind” (Sepetys 348). They were all the victims of this disaster. Thousands of people were sinking in the cold sea; others were looking at them from the boat. All of them suffer from the horrendous event collectively. When Joana and Florian start thinking if someone is going to look for them in the sea, Florian wonders: “How would the Nazis report the news of the sinking? But then I realized. They wouldn’t report at all” (Sepetys 355). The Nazis would want to conceal this horrendous event. The German ship eventually saves everybody from the boat. The trauma, which was experienced collectively by so many people, will remain as a traumatic memory for those who survived. After more than twenty years, Florian lives in the United States together with Joana, Klaus, Halinka and his and Joana’s child. Florian thinks about his inner state after such amount of time: “I sat on the porch, my hands trembling and cold. The fear never disappeared, but with each year it retreated slightly, a tide of memory sliding back out to sea. The terror returned mainly at night, but Joana was always there to chase it away” (Sepetys 374). The haunting fear

29 never truly fades away, but the support of relatives mitigates it. Such a disaster leaves scars for the rest of the survivors’ lives. Individual traumas are in some way connected with collective traumas; often these two types of traumas interact. As Ingrida Žindžiuvienė remarks, “collective memory may have a strong influence on the capacity of individual or personal memory; likewise, individual memory influences the generality of collective memory” (Žindžiuvienė 71-72). Taking Saul’s ideas into consideration, the individual and collective trauma can depend on each other: “people who suffer from individual trauma usually have difficulty recovering if the community to which they belong remains shattered” (Saul 4). For this reason, in the context of trauma, people are inclined to stay together and to survive a traumatic period together. Joana’s thoughts in the novel Salt to the Sea present the situation of every character in the group of refugees, who are travelling to the port trough the icy lagoon: What a group we were. A pregnant girl in love [Emilia], a kindly shoemaker [the shoe poet], an orphan boy [little boy Klaus], a blind girl [Ingrid], and a giantess [Ingrid] who complained that everyone was in her way when she herself took up the most room. And me, a lonely girl who missed her family and begged for a second chance […] We were among the first to cross. (Sepetys 130).

Every character described by Joana, including herself, has his own struggles and fights his own inner battle, trying to find strength and have faith in the brighter future, which makes all of them related in some way. Now they try to make decisions together as a team and reach the port safely and it creates a sense of collectiveness in the traumatic historical circumstances. As Laurie Vickroy states, “Psychological frameworks share with trauma fiction an investigation of the situational and social variables shaping the experience of trauma survivors. They help reveal the many emotional, social, and cognitive implications of trauma” (Vickroy 2). This means that reading trauma fiction helps to educate oneself about the emergence of trauma and the causes of it. Gaining knowledge about the historical tragedy is a collective experience as well; the knowledge about historical trauma is believed to spread through further generations, from the stories of those who survived. In Ruta Sepetys’ words, “books join us together as a global reading community striving to learn from the past” (Sepetys 383). Thus, trauma reaches the hearts of further generations through books and the reader community become as the contemporary witnesses of trauma. Taking everything into account, collective trauma in the novel Salt to the Sea is caused by war. The characters suffer collectively from racism, cruel behavior toward a certain nationality, the deaths of their relatives and other people around them, the danger of the Russian Army, the threat of getting killed, the fear

30 of an uncertain future and their losses. During the traumatic events many characters experience the lack of morale towards others because the survival instinct often becomes dominant. The main horrendous event of the novel Salt to the Sea – the sinking of the ship Wilhelm Gustloff is undoubtedly the biggest traumatizing occurrence at a collective scale. As a result of suffering from collective trauma together, the refugees in the novel Salt to the Sea tend to stay in a group and help each other in harsh conditions. Individual traumas are interrelated with collective traumas, and the narratives about them spread through generations and remain unforgettable due to their importance.

5 Conclusion

Taking everything into account, this bachelor thesis provides the analysis of historical trauma in the Ruta Sepetys’ novel Salt to the Sea. Main aspects of the analysis are the structure of the novel and the occurrence of individual and collective traumas in the novel. In order to understand the causes of individual and collective traumas appearing in the lives of the characters in the novel Salt to the Sea, the concept of trauma, main concepts of trauma fiction, types of traumas, trauma narratives and their structures are presented in the theoretical part. The links and differences of individual and collective traumas are emphasized. In the analytical part, historical trauma in the novel is analyzed with reference to the ideas in the theoretical part. Examples from the novel are provided to support the theoretical ideas. Trauma fiction includes novels with both fictional and historical details. Historical trauma in the novel Salt to the Sea is caused by the events of the World War II. Four main characters Joana, Florian, Emilia and Alfred are suffering from individual traumas. They undergo traumatizing challenges as a group, which causes their collective trauma. The characters in the novel have to individually cope with a feeling of loss, longing for home, for their families and pain caused by the war incidents. As a group of refugees, they have one purpose, to run away from the menacing Soviet Red Army. They travel East Prussia with a purpose to reach a port of Gotenhafen and to safely reach Germany by the ship. The road to safety is full of challenges, which they withstand together. Being together during all the hardships creates the sense of collective trauma. Therefore, individual trauma becomes related to collective trauma, when a group of people have their own individual issues, and at the same time they are affected by the traumatic historical situation, oppression toward them, deaths of people around them and undergo the same horrendous event.

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Another feature of suffering from collective trauma is the way the group handles the traumatizing situation and copes with it. In many occasions, the characters in the novel Salt to the Sea have the feeling of collectiveness, they help each other out and tend to stick together. Eventually, they become close as a family and treat each other as family members. Although, there are situations, which create a collapse of morale, visible in the actions of some characters. Then, in a traumatic situation, a character stops thinking that he is a part of a group and fights only for himself. The survival instinct becomes dominant and the person strives to save himself without paying attention to the well-being of others. The main traumatizing event in the novel Salt to the sea is the sinking of the ship Wilhelm Gustloff during the World War II, in the January of 1945. The survivors suffer from the traumatic memories, which haunt them for the rest of their lives. This historical event left the scars in the hearts of many people, and their traumatic experiences will be spread through storytelling. It is important to learn about the historical events and the traumas that they caused to the humanity because they have influenced a large amount of people, and it is a part of the historical heritage.

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Works Cited

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Vickroy, Laurie. Reading Trauma Narratives: The Contemporary Novel & the Psychology of Oppression. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press. 2015. Web. 10 Nov. 2019. “Wilhelm Gustloff and S-13: January 1945”. Fortunes de Mer. Fortunes de Mer. Web. 10 Feb. 2020. https://www.fortunes-de-mer.com/mer/images/WILHELM_GUSLOFF_30-january- 1945/WILHELM_GUSTLOFF_Disaster_30-January-1945%2819%29.jpg Whitehead, Anne. Trauma Fiction. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. 2014. Print. Zabecki, David T., Van Husen, William H., Schuster, Carl O. and Jones, Marcus O. (Eds.). Germany at War: 400 Years of Military History. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO. 2014. Web. 10 Dec. 2019. Žindžiuvienė, Ingrida Eglė. “Memory Paths of Conveying Multi-Voiced Cross-Cultural Trauma”. Multicultural Narratives: Traces and Perspectives. Edited by Kirca, Mustafa. Dix, Hywel. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. 2018. pp. 66-84. Web. 20 Jan. 2020.

Appendix A “Plot Summary of Ruta Sepetys’ Novel Salt to the Sea”

The story takes place in East Prussia, during the end of the World War II. In the January of 1945, the Soviet Red Army starts occupying the land of East Prussia. The enormous number of refugees in East Prussia start travelling to the port of Gotenhafen, where ships are preparing for the departure to Germany. The refugees hope that they will be safer in Germany until the war is over. The four main characters have the same purpose, they flee East Prussia during the cold winter and overcome many challenges together. Joana is a Lithuanian nurse who travels with a group of other refugees, including the German giant woman Eva, the German shoemaker Heinz, the wandering German boy Klaus and the blind German woman Ingrid. In the cold road full of difficulties and shocking experiences, the group stays in a barn to rest and then a young Prussian man Florian shows up together with a Polish girl Emilia. He was an art restorer who worked for Eric Koch and Dr. Lange. Florian feels deceived by his employers because they lied to him about the true purpose of their work. Eric Koch and Dr. Lange wanted Florian to restore the art that was stolen and help to hide the Amber room. Now Florian has a secret, he has stolen an art work from the priceless Amber room, and now he carries it together with him, with a plan of revenge against Hitler. Florian is with a 15-year old Polish girl Emilia, he saved her from the armed German soldier. Emilia appears to be pregnant after a physical abuse of Russian soldiers. The group has a purpose to safely reach the port of Gotenhafen. During their journey, they spend a night in the abandoned house whose owners appear to be killed in the second floor. Later, the group decides to cross the frozen lagoon as the faster way. When bombs start falling, Ingrid falls into the cold water and dies. The refugees finally reach the port after the evasion of major inconveniences with the German soldiers. All of them receive permissions to the ship Wilhelm Gustloff, except Florian who counterfeits his pass and enters the ship as well. The giant woman Eva enters the other ship. On the ship, they meet Alfred, a Nazi German officer. Emilia gives birth to her daughter Halinka on the ship, Joana helps her as a nurse. Florian and Joana start to develop a romantic relationship. After the ship departs, three torpedoes are released from the Russian submarine to the bottom of the Wilhelm Gustloff. People start panicking and run to the upper deck, after they understand that the ship is sinking. There are not enough boats for such a large amount of passengers. Florian, Joana, little boy Klaus and Emilia’s daughter Halinka safely reach the water in a lifeboat. Emilia and Alfred manage to descend into the water in another boat. They watch the ship sinking and people falling into the water. The shoe poet falls

into the water as well without the opportunity to survive. When the ship is not in the sight anymore, the survivors start waiting for help. Alfred becomes furious, after he finds out that Emilia is Polish and not Latvian as he was told. They start fighting in the ship and Alfred falls into the deadly cold water. Joana, Florian, little boy Klaus and Halinka are saved by the other ship. All of them are living in the USA after many years and Halinka becomes a famous swimmer, although the memories about the past experiences are still present in Joana’s and Florian’s minds. At the end of the novel, Emilia’s dream about her being safe and happy at home is presented. Florian receives a letter from a woman who writes that her family found and buried Emilia’s body.

Appendix B “Wilhelm Gustloff and S-13: January 1945”

(https://www.fortunes-de-mer.com/mer/images/WILHELM_GUSLOFF_30-january- 1945/WILHELM_GUSTLOFF_Disaster_30-January-1945%2819%29.jpg)