Vulnerable To Change In A Tree Grows In Brooklyn

Experiences Altering The Way People Develop Humans are genetically built to be vulnerable to change. Humans are personally altered by one thing everyone can relate to, experience. Every single person has been exposed to a specific experience that caused people to question and re-evaluate their commitments to those roles, goals, values, and beliefs. Experiences change who people are, and in other words, their identity. Characters from A Tree Grows In Brooklyn by Betty Smith, To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, and people in society, supported by scholarly journals, have been changed due to experiences in their everyday lives. A Tree Grows In Brooklyn by Betty Smith is a novel about perseverance and hardship, that represents the change and growth …show more content…

When the multiple traumatic experiences with the miscarriages of her unborn children continue to happen, she decides to put her stubbornness aside and change the way she worships. Sissy says, “Oh God, why can't you just let me have one”(Smith 437). In this quote, Sissy prays to God in order for her pregnancy to be successful. This shows that because of the multiple traumatic miscarriages that Sissy has experienced, she decides to change the way she views Christianity, which is dynamic for Sissy because of how strong-willed she is portrayed in the story. Katie Nolan, who at the beginning of the story is a weak, self-destructive, and dependent woman that relies on her husband for everything from income to stability. As she is comforting her children after her husband's death she says, “From now on, I am your mother and your father”(Smith 297). Katie is not used to being in control and having power, but she is forced, by the traumatic experience of her husband's death, to change her behaviors. Dynamic characters who are vulnerable during events in this novel support the claim, experiences people endure can change their …show more content…

One of the most talked about traumatic experiences, that shows real character change and development that anyone can encounter, is abuse. In a journal provided by ProQuest Library, the text suggests a specific fact that relates to abuse. The author relates identity to childhood abuse by adding, “Discriminant analysis suggested childhood abuse and neglect are important predictors of perfectionism profile membership”(Grad and Gordy 1).This quote reveals that after children endure abuse during their childhood, they are more likely, then someone who hasn't experienced abuse, to have personality changes, and in this specific scenario, those that have become perfectionist. Perfectionism may develop as an attempt to regain a sense of validation and worthiness that was lacking during early traumatic experiences, making personality change relevant. Grad dove deeper into the research and provided data analysis. He adds that non-perfectionists, a total of 64%, and maladaptive perfectionists, a relative %58, indicated that they experienced similar levels of childhood neglect