After reading “The Break” by Katherena Vermette, I think that one of the many purposes of the book is to give insight on how the relationships in your life can determine how you heal from traumatic experiences. My thoughts about self-governance changed drastically after reading the novel. I now believe self-governance, while important, is not beneficial in the long run without family to rely on. I found that Vermette successfully used multiple perspectives, a character in the story and storytelling and flashbacks to support the idea of how trauma can be dealt with more efficiently in a loving family community, compared to dealing with it alone.
Vermette successfully included multiple perspectives around the main conflict and their individual experiences around it and family. This made me realize that Vermette uses multiple points of view in order to depict the indigenous worldview so that there is no one specific way of interpreting a situation. Vermette used a compare and contrast of indigenous worldviews as opposed to western worldviews to depict a sense of
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The use of stories and the act of reminiscing is important. I think the insight into childhood is interesting to see. When Lou tells the story of them under the blanket sharing their traumas, the narrator says, “Then, Lou told her the story, the first one she ever kept”, and they all end up comforting each other, “Stella wrapped an arm around Paul, and rubbed her arm like she’d seen her Kookoo do to people who needed hugs” (76). The act of sharing that story of a bad experience helped both Paulina and Lou to bond, but also to relieve the pain and trauma that came from the situation. I also believe that it was important for Stella to receive these stories because the knowledge of her family's traumas could possibly help her in future