Growing Up Growing up is a common theme used in literature. Authors spend a lot of time developing their main characters so we as the reader can watch them grow. Often times in a novel the protagonist will go through a traumatic life experience that forces them to grow up at a young age. These traumatic experiences force characters to either sink or swim, and have a huge impact on their personas. The literary theme of young girls being forced to grow up is predominant in Patricia McCormick’s Sold, Ruta Sepetys’ Between Shades of Gray and Jamie Blair’s Leap of Faith, as we as readers watch the young protagonists deal with and grow from the difficult experiences they face throughout their journeys. Typically in literature authors make their protagonists dynamic characters who go through a significant change. A lot of these changes result from a traumatic experience that force them to mature. In adolescent literature the main character is frequently very young and typically has to deal with issues that normal teenagers don’t even have to think about. There are many similarities between the novels: Leap of Faith, Sold, and Between Shades of Gray. The main character in all of these novels is a adolescent girl. All three girls go through a type of journey that forces them to grow up at a quick pace. The difficulties they face throughout their journeys help them grow and learn about how strong they really are. All three protagonists are horribly mistreated by people with more power. Another similarity in these novels is that the main character leaves their home to start a new life, either by force or by choice. Lina from Ruta Sepetys’ Between Shades of Gray is exiled to Siberia with her family. Lakshmi from Patricia McCormick’s Sold i... ... middle of paper ... ...t through meant nothing. Lakshmi’s ability to keep her spirits high shows how much she has matured from everything she's been through. When the American offers to take her to a safe place, Lakshmi is unsure about trusting him because of all the lies she has been told by the people she once trusted. She has faith that he will save her and she decides to pack up her things with a hopeful attitude. She loses some faith as time passes and he doesn’t come back but she never gives up completely, she writes, “I know something else as well. I know that I would endure a hundred punishments to be free of this place” (260). This relates back to the advice Ama gave her about how to simply endure is to triumph. Lakshmi does triumph, she endures so much suffering but never gave up hope. Lakshmi is so brave and truly developed as a person as a result of her painful journey.
If you walk into a book store coming of age novels are everywhere to be found. Most of these novels focus on the times in our lives when we are most susceptible to trying new things and when we think we know everything. The teenage years are what no one wants to go back to yet we can’t stop reading about them. Some examples of these novels include ‘To kill a Mockingbird’, ‘The Outsiders’, and ‘Looking for Alibrandi’. These books focus on the ugly duckling stage of a swan’s life through to when they transform into a majestic swan. No book shows this better than the Peter Goldsworthy’s book Maestro.
Growing up is an extremely complicated and deep subject for just about everyone. The story “Marigolds” displays this throughout its plot. “Marigolds” tells about a young girl living in a rough situation, and how she breaks from her innocence and begins to understand reality. There are extremely different emotions that go along with innocence and maturity. Hearing Lizabeth's reactions and thought about her journey through growing up shows how maturation is a both beautiful and ugly.
I picked this theme because no matter how much Mumtaz (the ‘owner’ of Lakshmi) tried to get Lakshmi to give up on her life at home and instead wanted her to stay miserable at ‘happiness house,’ Lakshmi never forgot she had a country, an age, and a family. “You are safe here only if you do not show how frightened you are.” (McCormick, 116) In the back of her mind, there always were thoughts of her friend Ama, her stepfather, and her baby brother suffering back from Nepal. She always thought of her real home in Nepal and always said one thing to herself, looking at the mirror. “My name is Lakshmi. I am from Nepal. I am thirteen years old.” (McCormick, 263/many other pages) She never forgets where she comes from, who she really is, how old she is, and that she is a child and does not belong to ‘happiness house’. This has helped her keep up a positive attitude, and soon enough, she was thinking about her family and how she should take care of them once she was free. This helped her not only persevere but to complete the work and eventually
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines trauma as a very difficult or unpleasant experience that causes someone to have mental or emotional problems usually for a long time (Merriam-Webster, Incorporated, 2015). From a medical perspective trauma is describe as severe damage to a person’s body. Trauma can be cause by multiple factors in a person life. Trauma could stem from a distressing experience of a physical or psychological nature. In recent years’ major natural disasters and acts of terrorism have become more prominent and devastating creating long lasting traumatic effects in individuals lives. Trauma can have a lasting negative impact on a person’s life. The lasting effects of trauma can have a negative effect in development as well as
Bill is a nine-year-old Caucasian male. Bill is currently living with his biological mother (Crystal age 32), sister (Sage age 3), aunt, cousin, and grandmother (Jessica). Jessica owns the house and Bill’s family and grandmother live on the second level and his aunt and cousin live in the basement. The home environment appears to be safe and stable with adequate space for everyone currently there. Bill hasn’t had any contact with his biological father since he was one-year-old. Crystal is currently single. Crystal is employed full-time and Jessica provides childcare for Bill and Sage while Crystal is at work.
She woke up realizing that there is one day less than yesterday. Lakshmi realizes that “all I know is that each time one leaves, my debt to Mumtaz grows a little smaller”(130). This expresses that after each day ends there is one less day that she will be in the tortuous house. This gave her hope to try with all her might every day so Lakshmi can get a lot of money which would lead her to return home. She kept an account of everything to calculate exactly how much time she would be there and try her hardest even though she hated doing it. This gave her hope to continue what she was doing and try harder. Lakshmi was always positive in every situation she had to face. In the novel Sold, it expresses that “if you look hard enough, chaos turns into the way letters turn into words”(76). This quote explains that she was positive in all situations. Even at the lowest point of time, she was optimistic and looked at the brighter side. She had the hope that one-day thing was turn to something good and life would get better, but she just has to try harder. She determined that she will work harder to achieve her goal which was to leave the brothel. Her main strength was having hope and being optimistic in every situation in faced in the
With my past social work experience I understand that trauma can affect many people in different ways. Traumatic life experiences can vary with everyone and their way of coping and reacting. I worked a children services for about two years. I have been able to witness the effects of trauma on a lot of the children I worked with. For example, I had to remove 5 children from their mother. Their mother was using meth at the time leaving the oldest child, who was thirteen years old, taking care of the youngest. The mother was in an abusive relationship with their father. The father was very emotionally abusing by threatening the kids and mother. Removing the children from their mother was a traumatic life experience.
In a perfect world, everyone would be born with an impeccable sense of self. We would be welcomed and wanted and experience the type of up-bringing that fostered development of a complete knowledge of value and self-worth. Every individual would gain a clear sense of purpose and a true understanding of the gifts buried within them. This knowledge would give rise to diligence and focus that, coupled together with love and support, would encourage each individual to grow and build those gifts to their fullest extent; the fruit of such feeding the nations in both body and spirit. Oh, to live in such a place.
In a Ted Talk entitled “How childhood trauma affects health across a lifetime,” pediatrician Nadine Burke Harris explains how repeated abuse and neglect can have effects on the brain. Harris has started a clinic with her colleagues, focusing on childhood trauma and its affects. Harris routes her talk with scientific research and evidence, but her information is presented in a way for everyone to understand. To support her claim about childhood trauma, Harris establishes her ethos, by presenting information from herself and her colleagues, and various others, giving her creditability. Harris relies on logos and pathos throughout her talk as well, saying how one’s ACE score directly affects their health. Her pathos is credited here by allowing the audience to have an emotional response and also her logos as strong evidence is being used.
In her story, Boys and Girls, Alice Munro depicts the hardships and successes of the rite of passage into adulthood through her portrayal of a young narrator and her brother. Through the narrator, the subject of the profound unfairness of sex-role stereotyping, and the effect this has on the rites of passage into adulthood is presented. The protagonist in Munro's story, unidentified by a name, goes through an extreme and radical initiation into adulthood, similar to that of her younger brother. Munro proposes that gender stereotyping, relationships, and a loss of innocence play an extreme, and often-controversial role in the growing and passing into adulthood for many young children. Initiation, or the rite of passage into adulthood, is, according to the theme of Munro’s story, both a mandatory and necessary experience.
Children experience decreased development in the left brain when traumatic events occur (Network, n.d.). Imagine being a child and growing up with these types of events occurring. A traumatic event in a child’s life can cause a child to experience a long lasting negative effect. Life events are happening everywhere and more often in the lives of children (Understanding Child Traumatic Stress, n.d.). Trauma can cause them to do three things. First, they try to see what the danger is and how serious it is. Secondly there are strong emotional and physical reactions. Thirdly they attempt to come up with what to do that can help them with the danger. Traumatic events can cause a child to develop differently, which effects the young child stage,
“It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.” This quote by E.E Cummings reflects the topic of growing up and finding your true self. Growing up isn’t easy and it’s different from everyone, so there has been many book written on this topic. In fact, there is a whole genre dedicated for the books that explore the world of growing up and it’s called ‘Bildungsroman”. Two bildungsroman novel which explore growing up are To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee and Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen. Though these two protagonists grew up in different times and places, some of the same forces molded them into who they would become.
How does childhood trauma affect health over a lifetime? To answer this question, let’s dive deeper into childhood trauma affects health across a lifetime and really try to dissect this complex question. The key points that will be discussed in this essay are: The Adverse Childhood Experiences Study, defining emotional trauma on a child, defining physical trauma on a child, and the role trauma plays in our relationships. Also, discussed in this essay is the effects of trauma on our mental and physical health.
While many adolescence have disabilities that effect their way of life, the least spoken about disability is Posttraumatic Stress Disorder especially when pertaining to child sexual abuse. The article “Trauma Characteristics and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder among Adolescent Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse” reveals the contexts of PTSD along with a randomized controlled case study of 83 female adolescents who undergone such abuse. This study was conducted by doctoral-level clinicians using various measures including but not limited to: Child PTSD Symptom Scale, Beck Depression Inventory, Personal Experience Screening Questionnaire, and Trauma History Interview. In addition, a data analytic approach was used to subdivide each adolescent’s trauma by type, number of victimizations, as well as the relationship to the perpetrator.
Young adult literature is a consistently evolving genre that continues to push controversial boundaries and trends. The term “young adult” was first coined in the 1960s and was defined as “realistic fiction that was set in the real contemporary world and addressed problems, issues, and life circumstances of interest to young readers aged approximately twelve to eighteen” (Cart). Young adult readers of the past read publications such as Zindel’s The Pigman (1968) and Cormier’s The Chocolate War (1974), with the 1960s and 1970s being more about coming of age and the journey to adulthood, while today’s novels highlight the journey itself. With the introduction of the Internet and advances in technology and modern science, young adult literature has also developed as teenagers redefine themselves and their role in society (Avoli-Miller). Contemporary young adult literature has evolved over the past sixty years from novels such as The Outsiders to The Hunger Games, which offers young adult readers a window through which they can better examine their lives and the world around them as opposed to the adolescent problem novel in which complicated issues are often portrayed in a black-and-white manner.