The Portable Veblen By Elizabeth Mckenzie

Adolescents are very unlikely to reach their full potential without the guidance of an adult figure, such as a mother, father, sibling, or guardian. Adult figures are essential to a growing child because they exemplify decision making, wisdom, and overall life lessons on how to grow up. Although some children do have an adult figure in their life, they aren’t always the best influences for their children, adults also face their own battles which can reflect upon their exterior, ultimately having a critical effect on a child’s development. For example, in “Running with Scissors” by Augusten Burroughs, the main character Augusten lives with his mother who suffers from a mental disorder who guides him into a pathway of chaos and disorder. Augusten learns to cope with no guidance, but still faces many issues that could have been resolved with a reassuring adult figure.

As human beings evolve from infancy to elderly stages in life, times of struggle and hardship continually challenge their kin and personage; as life tests their mental fortitude and survival dexterity. In essays “My Father’s hands” by author Daisy Hernandez, and “Beginning Dialogues” by author Toi Derricotte, life and its whirl wind of ups and downs are expressed and exemplified. Both authors’ upbringings share various similarities on their evolutionary road trip through life. Struggling with hardship and abuse, how both authors’ dealt with their hardships, and how they ultimately survived/overcame these trying events, show similar correlations.

¨There was a law against luke. Not him personally everyone like him, kids who were born after their parents already had two babies (pg 6)¨. Would you like a law against you? Among the hidden by Margaret Peterson Haddix clearly shows that dictatorship is horrible. In this novel Luke is not allowed to leave the house or be seen. Luke leaves the house in cover and meets a girl the same as him she can't go anywhere so she tries to convince luke to rebel to be like regular people with her but he is to nervous. Luke shows the character traits of brave, jealousy and adventurous as he hides in the shadows.

Judith does a very good job at showing the reader different influences to a child’s development one of which is outside of the home. It is proven that if you live in a good home but a bad environment it is proven that it is more harmful than the other way around (Harris). This is because peers have a much larger impact then parent’s. This also goes for moving a lot, it is shown that by changing neighborhoods or schools more often, the child tends to have more problems in school or with their behavior (Harris).

Child development is the genetic and internal changes that occur in children during early years. There are many internal and external factors that affect a child 's growth and development. The connection between a child’s environment and a child’s development are explored in Heather O 'Neill 's lullabies for little criminals where a child named Baby becomes a product of her environment. This is explored through the early death of Baby’s mother, her being raised by a young father and her father 's drug addiction. Baby’s bad decisions and choices come from a lack of guidance necessary for a child’s social growth and development.

A trauma narrative is a narrative that describes an experience or experiences that cause someone to be destressed and cannot be incorporated into their memory easily. Throughout her own traumatic narrative, Jeannette Wall’s describes different aspects of her everyday life that showcase various levels of significance. She is able to show how certain life events impact her plans for escaping her current socioeconomic status and her plans for the future. The text is also able to tell us about trauma, poverty, ourselves, and our society. Furthermore, the text demonstrates the impact that trauma and poverty can have and how they can have lasting effects. These concepts help us to think about our own life experiences and situations and they also show us how to be analytical about our society. Lastly, this narrative is able to reveal to us the different aspects of a traumatic childhood and how important and impactful this type of upbringing can be. Jeannette Walls uses her own traumatic autobiography to show that despite her adverse upbringing in poverty and passive and unattached parenting she was able to become successful. The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls, shows the benefits and the value that can come from having a traumatic narrative. This is significant because it shows that an experience can shape a person, but a person can also shape the experience.

The individual who experiences these awful memories will forever hold that pain into adulthood. Memories and negative past experiences are big factors of trauma. Trauma is a distressing experience psychologically, and can last for a lifetime, that may keep an individual from executing certain activities successfully. Lin Shi and Jason Nicol from Dekalb, Illnios are specialized in Family Therapy, and have observed a criminal through the experimental process. Shi and Nicol have announced that, “In the stabilizing sessions that followed aggressive episodes, regardless of what set him off, he frequently referred back to his unpleasant experiences with his parents which often involved a strong physical reaction” (par. 10). The pain coming from an unpleasant experience had resorted out into violence every time the brain conjures up a past memory that was agonizing. A negative reaction is usually shown when the individual had been hurt physically and/or emotionally from any past events. These painful childhood memories make an individual rash out into anger followed by the offenses committed (Shi and Nicol par.10). When a sixteen year old male was analyzed by a treatment center, the clinic had been told that the boy’s mother walked out of the child’s life at the age of two and had been living with the father (par. 5). Children who are left by the main nurturer in the family effects the decisions carried into adulthood. Negative consequences are the

Dave Pelzer once said “Childhood should be carefree, playing in the sun; not living a nightmare in the darkness of the soul” (Goodreads). Indeed, most parents and other caregivers do not intentionally hurt their children. However, many children each year are traumatized by physical, sexual, emotional, psychological abuse, and neglect. In the memoir The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls reveals that she cannot lift the burden of her childhood experiences. Throughout writing The Glass Castle, the author tries to comfort herself to relieve her pain, examine her past and portray to her readers how damaging the legacy of abuse and neglect can be.

As a child grows, extra care and attention is very essential in order to build the foundation of love and a strong bond. Especially, in today’s society,children are often judged by the act of their parents but in this memoir, written by Miss Jeannette Walls shows how unstainable and dysfunctional relationship Jeannette had with her parents but she still managed to use her tough upbringing for confidence and resourcefulness.

Family is the first structure that one becomes a part of and it has a huge impact on people’s life. Parents play an important part on a child’s development. Jess’s family had a significant impact on Jess’s emotional state. Hir parents did not give the love that a child would require from the beginning. Leslie Feinberg states, “My mother admitted she was afraid to touch me, except to pin on a diaper or stick a bottle in my mouth” (Feinberg 14). They treated hir as ze was different (?) .Another significant experience that Jess had in hir childhood was when

In addition, the children managed to grow up with a high tolerance for hard times and bravery that is incomparable. The limited supervision and parental neglect led to may disheartening situations for the three children, which no child should ultimately have to bare.

This style is also more likely to be the recipient of abuse. The fearful style also has an unlovable presentation of self and can show itself as either the perpetrator or recipient in partner violence. I believe that Jessica’s childhood directly impacted her inability to recognize her need to self-protect and understand that she does not “deserve” this type of behavior from her current boyfriend. She cannot recognize this because she feels she is undeserving, unlovable and “bad.” If Jessica had a secure attachment to her caregivers as a child, she would have the foundation for optimal mental health and resilience which is a protective factor against the development of trauma (Solomon & Siegel, 2003).

Alice Miller wrote the book The Drama of the Gifted Child, which talks about a child who wanted nothing more than to please his parents. He felt like the best thing to do is please others and be perfect in everything he set out to do. Some children do what their parents say, some don’t follow the rules at all, but there is a child who did every single thing his parents told him to do. An ideal child that parents would adore but while he did everything they wanted he lost something. Himself; is what he lost in the midst of just focusing on what his parents wanted from and for him; he stopped dealing with his own life. He put himself on the back burner to please the parents who asked for so much and even took away a lot. Miller speaks on how it is because of the child’s own self pressure to be perfect that he experienced things adults go through at the time of still being a young boy. He never let himself feel remorse for his own actions, it was only failure and when it happened he bottled it up and never dealt with those feelings. It got to the point where he locked his child like self away to later then recover it after he became an adult.

Howe (2010) states “The majority of parents who maltreat their children have problems metalizing their children’s psychological condition. Their own histories tend to be ones of rejection, abuse, neglect, trauma and loss. Never having been fully recognized as an independent, complex psychological being themselves, they have problems relating to their children as complex, separate psychological beings” (pg. 336).

Bentham (2012) not only considers a dysfunctional home background, but also inadequate parenting as “key