Unveiling the Post-9/11 Milieu: A Comparative Analysis of DeLillo’s Falling Man, and Hamid’s Exit West

Abstract

This research explores the psychological impact of the 9/11 incident on the minds of people. It explores trauma, fear and identity crisis. This study includes the tragedy of 9/11 driving the unconscious minds of people enhancing societal upheaval. It investigates the sufferings of people after this calamity. The purpose of this research is to highlight the outcomes of this misfortune on the psyche and emotions of the people. The research has been delimited to DeLillo’s Falling Man and Hamid’s Exit West. It involves the psychological sufferings of people i.e., alienation, suicide, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder PTSD, separation among families, migration and displacement, war and political turmoil, insomnia, and the impact of technology. People’s extreme mental illness inspired this research. It is based on the mental illness of people after witnessing the 9/11 disaster. This research throws light as to how traumatic past events are destroying the lives of innocent people. The human psyche is controlled through psychoanalysis that highlights the subconscious processes known as deep psychology. Sigmund Freud’s (1896) Psychoanalytical theory has been applied as theoretical framework in this research study. The current literary works on post 9/11 compositions may not broadly probe the explicit psychological consequences depicted in figures within DeLillo’s Falling Man and Hamid’s Exit West. Therefore, the goal of the present research is to reduce this gap through the parallel study of how the selected novels portray traumatic conditions, displacement and identity crisis in the post-9/11 milieu, unveiling the mental issues and individual circumstances of societal trauma within the research scope.