Theme Of Guilt In Scott Anderson's Triage

Guilt is considered as ‘’a painful emotion experienced when one believes one’s actions or thoughts have violated a moral or personal standard,’’ whereas, ‘’Forgiveness is to give up resentment against someone for an offense or fault’’ (TheFreeDictionary.com, 2017). In Scott Anderson’s novel, Triage (1998), explores many themes throughout the three main characters including guilt and forgiveness. Mark Walsh, a war photojournalist, recalls the emotional and physical trauma that he experienced during the Kurdistan War and develops a pathway to recovery; Elena Morales, Mark’s Spanish girlfriend, has cut all lines of communication with her grandfather, Joaquin Morales, after finding out about his career during the Spanish War and Joaquin looks for forgiveness from his granddaughter Elena and himself as he
After Colin’s death, Mark goes into a state of denial and his build-up of guilt causes him to have a mental breakdown along with signs of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Deep into the novel, Mark retells the story of the ’Boy from Beirut’ to Joaquin and he explains how it was his fault that the boy is dead. This affected Mark in many ways as it left in an emotional trauma and self-isolation state that made it hard for Mark to open up to others again. As Joaquin and Mark explore the depths of this memory, Joaquin said “You never pass over them [our pains]. You carry them with you forever. That is what it means to live”(p.124). The ideology behind this is everyone must learn to live with the pain through their lives. This helps Mark to unlock the guilt that he is hiding away and that there is only one person that can only truly forgive him...himself. After this moment, Mark’s heart and mind are opened and he learns how to forgive himself for his actions that took place during that