Military Sacrifice and PTSD in Rebecca Yarros’ In the Likely Event

Thematic Claim: Compartmentalized Trauma and the Cost of Service

In In the Likely Event, Rebecca Yarros argues that military sacrifice, especially within elite Special Forces, forces service members to compartmentalize trauma to survive, but this strategy eventually sabotages intimacy, fuels misplaced guilt, and requires a deliberate, often painful, act of vulnerability to overcome. The novel traces Nathaniel Phelan’s journey from a young man who uses duty and emotional walls to bury his wounds to a veteran who finally accepts that healing demands letting others in.

Three Plot Sequences That Reveal the Theme

1. The Plane Crash and Forced Departure (Chapters 2–6)

On the flight that binds Nate and Izzy together, the plane’s wing explodes. Nate pulls Izzy from the wreckage and stays with her until she’s in surgery. But when U.S. Army soldiers arrive to escort him to basic training, he is forced to leave because she is not family. The farewell at the hospital encapsulates the theme: Nate is torn between his emerging connection and the unyielding demands of his military path. He tells Izzy’s sister, Serena, “orders are orders,” and walks away with nothing but a clear plastic bag of belongings. This moment plants the first seed of unresolved trauma—Nate never learns whether Izzy survived until years later. The compartmentalization has already begun: he buries his fear and attachment behind the identity of a soldier who follows orders.

2. The Kabul Evacuation and the Fatal Mistake (Chapters 13, 27, 30)

In 2021, Nate is a Special Forces operator assigned to protect Senator Lauren’s aide—who turns out to be Izzy. Their reunion forces him to confront the feelings he locked away. During the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, Nate’s trauma resurfaces most painfully when he confesses to Izzy that he blames himself for the death of his best friend, Julian Torres, during Selection. Torres died from anaphylactic shock after being bitten by a timber rattlesnake; Nate chose not to report the bite because Torres wanted to finish the course. This guilt is a direct result of the mindset Nate was conditioned to adopt: suppress personal concerns for the mission. The confession happens under immense pressure as the Taliban advance on Kabul. At the same time, Serena reveals that Izzy took a job with Senator Lauren specifically to help end the war that kept Nate away. The revelation underscores how Nate’s compartmentalization has rippled outward, affecting Izzy’s choices and their relationship. He refuses to let her into his emotional world, insisting on carrying the guilt alone.

3. The Therapy Threshold (Chapter 32)

Months after the evacuation, Nate stands outside a behavioral-health clinic at Fort Bragg, unable to open the door. His friend Torres—now a coping mechanism, a voice in his head—urges him to let go of misplaced guilt and seek help for the nightmares that prevent him from sleeping next to Izzy. Nate finally enters and tells Dr. Williamson, “I’ve been talking to my best friend as a coping mechanism… except he’s been dead for four years.” This is the first honest step Nate has taken toward addressing his PTSD. Yarros uses the clinic as a symbolic threshold: walking through it means risking his career in the unit but gaining a chance at a real life with Izzy. The scene crystallizes the novel’s claim that healing requires vulnerability—and that sacrifice of one’s emotional armor is a different, harder kind of bravery.

Character and Symbol Connections

Nathaniel Phelan embodies the theme directly: his entire identity as a Special Forces operator is built on compartmentalizing danger, grief, and love. The guilt he carries over Torres’s death is a toxic weight he believes he must bear alone. Izzy Astor serves as the catalyst who forces that weight into the light. She does not accept his walls; she pushes him to let her in, even when his confession horrifies her. Serena Astor, Izzy’s journalist sister, represents another form of sacrifice—bearing witness to war at great personal risk—and her choice to stay in Afghanistan mirrors Nate’s refusal to leave his post, showing how dedication can become self-destructive.

Torres (Julian Torres) functions both as a real fallen friend and as Nate’s internal voice of reason after death. Nate’s imagined conversations with Torres in the truck (Chapter 26) and at the clinic reveal how deeply the trauma has fragmented his psyche. Sergeant Gray and other team members like Jeremy Covington (if present) illustrate the supportive brotherhood that can also reinforce the code of silence.

Symbols deepen the thematic resonance. The plane crash is the shared origin of trauma for both Nate and Izzy; he cannot stay, she is left unconscious. The iPod and music become a private emotional language between them, a way to connect when words fail. The engagement ring (Izzy’s ring from Jeremy) represents an attempted future built on stability rather than passion, but Nate’s inability to propose honestly reveals his fear of commitment tied to guilt. The family farm in Maine, where the epilogue is set, symbolizes the peace Nate finally earns by leaving the military and seeking help—a domestic stability he once thought impossible.

Complexity and Contradiction

Yarros does not present military sacrifice as wholly noble. Nate’s dedication to his unit and his country costs him years of connection with Izzy, leads to chronic nightmares, and nearly destroys his capacity for intimacy. His guilt over Torres’s death is arguably misplaced—Torres refused medical help and insisted on continuing—but Nate internalizes it because he believes a good soldier should have overridden his friend’s choice. The novel complicates the ideal of “leave no one behind” by showing that sometimes the person left behind is oneself.

Furthermore, the therapy scene directly challenges the hyper-masculine ethos of Special Forces. Nate fears that seeking help will end his career, but Torres’s voice tells him that the career “not actually that fond of” is not worth losing Izzy. The contradiction is that the very traits that make Nate an elite operator—discipline, emotional control, self-reliance—are the traits that almost destroy his personal life. Yarros suggests that true sacrifice is not dying for one’s country but living honestly after the war.

Study Questions and Answers

How does Nate’s guilt over Torres’s death relate to his inability to commit to Izzy?

Nate believes that if he had acted differently, Torres would be alive. This guilt makes him feel unworthy of happiness and afraid that getting close to Izzy will result in another loss. He subconsciously pushes her away to avoid the risk, which Izzy interprets as a lack of love.
In what way does the plane crash function as the original trauma for both Nate and Izzy? Why can’t Nate stay with her at the hospital?

The crash leaves Izzy unconscious and Nate physically stunned, but the military’s need for him to proceed to basic training overrides any personal bond. The forced separation reinforces his training to compartmentalize; he learns from that moment that his feelings must be suppressed for duty.
Why is Nate’s decision to walk into the behavioral-health clinic a turning point for the theme of sacrifice?

Until that moment, Nate equates sacrifice with self-reliance—enduring pain alone for the mission. By seeking therapy, he sacrifices the identity of the invulnerable operator and accepts vulnerability, which is a deeper sacrifice of his ego for the sake of a future with Izzy.
How does the symbol of the family farm contrast with Nate’s military life?

The farm represents rootedness, domesticity, and generational continuity—everything Nate’s transient, violent career prevents. By the epilogue, he is grading papers and living in Maine, showing that he has traded the adrenaline of combat for the quiet peace of a committed partnership.
What does the novel suggest about the relationship between PTSD and romantic intimacy?

In the Likely Event argues that unresolved trauma blocks authentic intimacy. Nate cannot fully be with Izzy until he faces his nightmares and guilt. Conversely, Izzy’s persistence in asking to be let in demonstrates that healing is relational—it requires a partner who refuses to accept the walls.