How did trauma affect the characters in the novel?

Because this book is, to some degree, designed to guide readers to think about trauma and recovery from trauma, it is important for readers to begin interaction with the work with some knowledge of his / her personal experiences of trauma and recovery. In other words, this question asks readers to begin interaction with the book with an interaction with themselves.

In the Forward, Dr. Zimbardo suggests that heroism is not necessarily a single act, but rather “a mind-set or an accumulation of our personal and social habits. It is a way of being. And it is a special way of viewing ourselves” (xvi). What is the reader’s concept of heroism? What is the reader’s response to that particular quote?

Here again, because the book as a whole is asking readers to reconsider themselves and their relationship...