There are two significant types of trauma: psychological and physical. Psychological trauma is a form of injury that impairs an individual's mental and emotional capacities, whereas physical trauma is harm to the body from an external source. This form of trauma can be vividly seen in Dawn and Men in the Sun written by Elie Wiesel and Ghassan Kanafani respectively. In Dawn and Men in the Sun, Elisha and Marwan both experience the brutality of war and trauma, which causes their identity to change entirely. Both Elisha and Marwan were youths that had survived agonizing pain and suffering through difficult war times such as the Holocaust and Al- Nakba. Al- Nakba was " Day of Catastrophe" because millions of people became refugees and thousands of others were massacred. Elisha being a Holocaust survivor struggles to acquire his identity thus, his loneliness and vulnerability becomes the primary motive of The Movement. In the novel Dawn, Elisha the narrator says " Gad had recruited me for The Movement and brought me to Palestine. He made me into a terrorist."( Wiesel, pg.11) Elisha is a Israeli terrorist who is waiting to assassinate a British soldier named John Dawson in vengeance for the hanging of an Israeli freedom fighter. His moral dilemma is so massive that he tries to hate John however he is never able to. The psychological trauma and the physical trauma which is being known as an executioner becomes cumbersome. Despite his internal struggle he successfully executes John as well as a part of him. While he survives, Marwan dies a painful death trapped in a blistering hot metal tank. After his father abandoned his family he became the sole breadwinner as his brother contributes nothing. The 16- year old boy grows up to be the man of the house rather quickly therefore the trauma of taking care of his family pushes him to escape to Kuwait. .
The loss of childhood and innocence has a grave impact upon a developing child's memory.