Two short stories of horrific childhoods

Two short stories dealing with horrific childhoods center on implications in the life of the grown child. By examining the history of abuse, the intimate family relationships and the protagonists' struggle with their secrets in "Lawns" and "River of Names," it is evident that the transcendence of one's past is a challenging process. Even though Jenny in Mona Simpson's "Lawns" and the protagonist in Dorothy Allison's "River of Names" attempted to create a new life away from their traumatic and abusive environment, they still had not confronted their suppressed feelings about their past abuse in a constructive way. The objective of this paper is to analyze and compare the two characters' efforts to deal with their past and its impact on their relationships with themselves and the intimate people in their lives.

Both the protagonists tried to mask their intense emotions about their history of abuse in different ways. In "Lawns," Jenny has been sexually abused by her father and she provides a narrative of her history of abuse by giving an alternative interpretation of her situation that did not address the fundamental fact that her father had molested and raped her for many years. Instead, she dwelled on the facts that she was able to get her father to give her special treats. In this inversion of the reality, Jenny perceived herself as the special child in her family who controlled and manipulated her father and pitied her neglected brother. By feeling pity towards h

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Category: Literature - T