Effects Of Trauma On Identity Development

Identity Development Everyone experiences trauma at some point in their lives. Whether it be small, like skinning one’s knee, or large, like witnessing the death of a loved one, trauma can drastically affect how an individual grows and finds their own identity. In the long run, trauma can either be beneficial towards establishing one’s identity or detrimental. Traumatic events play a large part in the overall outcome and development of positive and negative self concept and identity progression. For example, traumatic events can have negative impacts on identity development and self concept formation. In Persepolis, Marji undergoes major trauma in many differing times in her life. She encounters many situations with death, gore, and restrictions

Likewise, in the book Ceremony, Tayo encounters varying effects of his traumatic times in the war that affect his identity progression negatively. For example, “He could feel it inside his skull—the tension of little threads being pulled and how it was with tangled things, things tied together, and as he tried to pull them apart and rewind them into their places, they snagged and tangled even more.” (Silko 7). The metaphor of tangled threads is symbolic to Tayo’s battle with overwhelming PTSD. After Tayo endured many traumatic and terrifying situations in the war and survived the Bataan Death March, he suffers through PTSD that affects how he grows as an individual. He could not even be around when someone crushed a watermelon because it gave him flashbacks of his cousin’s head being stomped in. This drastically affects how he responds in social situations and stunts his personal growth in later circumstances. Similarly, Tayo attempts to complete the ceremony but has momentary lapses of depression following his traumatic experiences. For instance, “A strange paralysis accompanied his thoughts; a sudden overwhelming fatigue took hold, and his heart pounded