Psychological Trauma Of Childhood

Childhood is a time of innocence. Children should be flooded with love, affection, and attention. Safety and security should not be concerns a child deals with. However, this is not the case for a lot of children. Thousands of children are faced with unimaginable problems that results in trauma. Trauma taking place in a person’s childhood can cause long term damage on the child. Many children are robbed of their childhood because of sexual abuse and emotional abuse particularly abandonment and neglect. Sometimes these traumatic events lead to an individual questioning who they are. According to Kathleen J. Moroz, in The Effects of Psychological Trauma on Children and Adolescents, she defines trauma as “a physical or psychological threat or

Abandonment occurs when a parent or caregiver leaves a child emotionally or physically (“Child Maltreatment”). Maryse Conde also portrays this in her books. In Desirada, Reynalda abandons and neglects Marie-Noelle. She leaves her when she was a baby with Renalise and does not tell her why. This causes trauma for Marie-Noelle because she wondered why her mother left her and why her father was not around. Then, when Marie-Noelle is 10 she comes back and takes her to live with her just to neglect her. Conde says she came and got Marie-Noelle out of responsibility and not because she missed or loved her. We also see abandonment in another novel of Conde, Crossing the Mangrove. Mira felt abandoned because her mother died while giving birth to her. She say’s "Like Rosalie Sorane, my mother, who abandoned me to solitude from the first day I came into the world” (192). Marie-Noelle and Mira share similar characteristics like isolation, Mira would go to the Gullies to be by herself. She says “I hate the loud”(367) and “solitude is my companion”(368).They also where abandoned in their childhood. Also, they sought out their identity in other

According to Moroz “Early trauma, particularly trauma at the hands of a caregiver, can markedly alter a child’s perception of self, trust in others and perception of the world” (6). This is a common theme in Maryse Conde Novels. The characters in her books struggle with who they are because of the trauma they experience so early on in life, so they go on identity quest. We see this with Mira, she does not know who she is as a person, so she seeks comfort in Francis. We also see Maire-Noelle struggle with her identity throughout the book. She believes her mother has the answers to who she is, she knows why she tried to kill herself, why she left her, and who her father is. So, she seeks for answers about her family through people who knew her mother and her grandmother, Nina. They both struggle with who they are because their mothers abandoned them, so they look for answers elsewhere. Moroz also says that children who are exposed to trauma early believe something is wrong with them, they are unlovable, and unworthy of love (4). Marie-Noelle calls herself a monster because she is unable to connect with people. She believes she’s the