Yes, thinking of it in terms of triggers is the best way to handle this, I think. Cause as I said, reading the book itself wasn't painful or even uninteresting. I just couldn't get past that point.
I too would be very impressed had I read that story you mention and seen that the child had compartmentalized everything and then broken down once he was safe. That is very realistic to me.
I suppose part of my trigger is being the traumatized child and all my role models were in books. It set me on a dangerous path. Frank Herbert's Dune and his Paul Atraides / Mau'dib is really not the person I should be mimicking not just for a crisis but all through my life. I had to get/ needed desperately therapy that taught me how to stop disconnecting from the world.
Children need to connect. They need to feel. They need to realize that feeling overhwlmed and sad and desperate and depressed is normal or they end up feeling as if they're isolated in their solitary weakness and need to toughen up and that's how you get suicides and/or individuals who can't show/have/experience compassion for their fellow man.
My thoughts: Heroes feel fear, hurt, bleed and cry. They are heroes for feeling it, accepting it, and finding a way to keep going anyway, not for ignoring it.