Child Abuse In Kerry Kletter's The First Time She Drowned

It is the tragic truth that many children have to face abuse while growing up, this influences the kind of person they become. Kerry Kletter’s novel, The First Time She Drowned, displays several forms of abuse a child may experience, many of which prove to have lasting effects on the characters. Through research, it is proven how abuse can affect a child's development. Whether the abuse is physical, verbal or sexual it changes a person, impacting their life. Abuse creates trauma for a person making their lives harder and changing the way they view the world. Kletter uses the O’Malley family to display the topic of abuse throughout her novel. She demonstrates to her readers that people who suffer from childhood abuse struggle to live a healthy

The burden of their trauma creates strains within their relationships. One of the biggest obstacles for the victims is trust issues that they develop from the abuse. Primarily, Cassie O’Malley lacks trust in her therapist due to her parents' neglect. Kletter writes in her novel; “I Am angry with myself for being manipulated into trusting her, suckered into believing I’d get what I needed.” (Kletter 232) Cassie feels foolish for trusting her therapist when a minor inconvenience occurs. Thinking she is gullible for believing her therapist can help. Cassie is used to getting let down when she seeks help from her parents; she feels like she should have known better than to trust anyone with her problems. Causing her to mistrust her therapist's advice and intentions. Nonetheless, Cassie also loses trust in her mother as a result of abuse. When Cassie becomes a pre-teen she is put into a situation where she has to trust her mother with her safety. She says “It was an act of faith, and all I had to do was trust my mother would catch me. But my legs felt like they belonged to someone else the way I couldn’t stop them from shaking.” (Kletter 77) In this situation, Cassie feels that her mother will not be able to protect her from harm. This is a result of her mother's abuse constantly making her feel hurt, frightened and betrayed growing up. As Cassie matures, the trust she has in her mother to keep her

Early on in the novel, Cassie does not allow herself to be vulnerable to others. She does not “want to be this cold, defensive person.” (Kletter 160) Regardless of her feeling this way she cannot stop herself. The behavior that makes her appear heartless, is the way she protects herself from being hurt again. It gives her control over her life, control that she did not have when she was vulnerable and abused. However, this makes it hard to connect and build relationships with others. Moreover, Bev, Cassie’s mother, also endured abuse as a child and to survive she takes her pain out on others; “Now in her desperation to stay afloat, she continues to pull down everyone who would try to love her.” (Kletter 320) The pain of Bev’s trauma is too much for her to handle. She uses those who love her as an outlet for her anger and torment. Passing her pain to others as a way of unburdening herself from her wounds. Making people resent and loathe her. These habits make it difficult for people to love and support Bev, ultimately ruining her relationships. Undoubtedly, intergenerational trauma plays a role in the O’Malley family's ability to build strong connections. It is proven in Katherine Montweiler’s novel, Neglect and Childhood Trauma in Frankenstein and Wuthering Heights: Writing the Domestic (Abuse) Novel, “that in denying children