Hubbell is a Ph.D. candidate in history at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. In this essay, he examines the literary expression of traumatic symptoms and the author's coping strategies in Allende's Paula, evident in the content as well as in the textual elements of the book.

During the 1990s, the concept of trauma entered the American cultural spotlight and found its place in the spheres of "psychoanalysis, psychiatry, sociology, and even literature," as Cathy Caruth writes in the book Trauma and Experience: Explorations in Memory. The public interest in the literature of this issue became apparent when autobiographical works focusing on a traumatic experience, such as Angela's Ashes, My Sergei: A Love Story, and Tuesdays with Morrie, reached and stayed on national bestseller charts throughout the decade.

The symptoms of trauma, as outlined by Caruth, are the following: intense personal suffering, avoidance...