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 Posted: Tue Jun 05, 2007 7:27 pm
Okay, I feel like being a little SAT-ee right now. I'm going to post a small memory, a non-fictional short story, if you will, and I want you to tell me how you think the main character is going to react, to grow up. I feel that, depending on your answer, we can determine your own state of psychological capacity for trauma.
Normally, the way a person reacts to another, more detached situation is how they would react to it themselves. Let's say if, perhaps, once you finish reading this, you feel the character will become a psychotic axe-murderer, bent on ridding the world of a certain kind of person. Most likely, that's how you yourself would feel and, if not act on, then secretly fantasize about doing.
By the time I finished with this, I myself started having fantasies about picking up a gun and using it in a way that probably would have gotten me life in the nearest asylum.
Now, let's see what you think...Jennifer awoke once again to the sound of shouting arose from across the hallway, sitting up with a start and a small gasp, her eyes widening in grief as she heard Mommy and Daddy fighting again, Daddy's worlds slurred with alcohol. Mommy and Daddy were always fighting now, for much longer than Jennifer wished them to stop, saying hateful, cruel things to each other like "I hate you!" and "Just die and leave me in peace!" and "None fo your god damned business!". Oh, how Jennifer wished they would stop and get along! How she wished she and Mommy could be happy again!
Suddenly, Jennifer heard the sound of something breaking, Mommy shouting at Daddy to stop it, then abruptly being cut off by a smacking sound, followed by a loud crash. Jennifer gave a soft cry of alarm and curled up on her side, pulling her knees up to her smalll, pounding chest, and vocering her small, thumping ears with her tiny hands, shivering all over. Tears streamed down Jennifer's pale face, sobs wracking her tiny body with the force of a runaway train.
In the other room, the shouting only increased, getting more and more hateful with each passing second, each of Daddy's sentences punctuated with a loud smack or thumping sound.
Jennifer just huddled up and cried and cried, murmuring "No, no, no" over and over again. Suddenly Jennifer heard the shouting stop, only to cry again when she heard a door slam open and shut, followed by the car starting and driving off with a dangerous haste. A few minutes later, Jennifer's door opened slowly, and there was Mommy, blood dripping from the cuts all over her face, livid bruises blotching her normally porcelein fine-skin everywhere.
Jennifer stared at Mommy for several minutes before she cried unrelentingly and turned away. Mommy came over to Jennifer slowly, sitting down beside her and pulling her into her arms and rocking her back and forth gently, crooning into little Jennifer's ear. "There, there....it's okay....Mommy's here....Mommy's little girl...."
End Now, how do you think little Jennifer will react the next day? In a week? Two months? A year? How do you suppose this will affect her life?
By the way, this is just an experiment. You do NOT have to participate if you don't want to.
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Posted: Tue Jun 05, 2007 7:41 pm
Day - I'd say she'd try to forget about it, probably the same for in a week, especially if her father returned. I'm not so sure about two months or a year - I guess that would depend on how old she is, though she seems pretty young. Perhaps she'd have nightmares.
I'm not sure if that's how I'd react though, I try and determine that by examining the text...
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Posted: Tue Jun 05, 2007 7:46 pm
Did I forget to put the age?
She's twelve years old. Normally an age where children are trying to establish independence.
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Posted: Tue Jun 05, 2007 7:48 pm
Celaze Did I forget to put the age?
She's twelve years old. Normally an age where children are trying to establish independence. Hm that puts a wrench in the works, I thought she was young enough to kinda make an impression on her but she'd eventually forget and it'd haunt her subconsciously. But thats old enough to have real vivid recall, unless she purposely-unconsciously (ehh) suppresses it to save her sanity. I tend to think about too many variables too. I would wonder about her personality and reaction to similar traumatizing things..
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Posted: Tue Jun 05, 2007 8:02 pm
After a day, most likely depression and nonresponsiveness, followed closely by anger, especially when a friend or close aquiantance made her think about it by asking what was wrong.
After a month, a slow hatred for her father. Maybe even accompanied by chronic depression or a feeling of uselessness. Depending on friends this might lead her to get her father in trouble or to just try and run away from the situation.
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Posted: Tue Jun 05, 2007 9:27 pm
I think that Jennifer would be very jumpy, easily upset, overly apologetic to men (to avoid a "punishment" similar to her mother's), and feel a lot of guilt for not protecting her mother, possibly leading to self-hatred and depression, in the short term, and in the long term, would probably have very, very difficult relationships with men later in life. She would be very mistrustful of men, especially those with interest in her mother, but also with men who try to treat her (Jennifer) kindly because she might think they were trying to trick her and would become abusive later.
However, unfortunately, Jennifer might also end up in an abusive relationship like her mother's, subconciously or conciously believing that she deserved to be treated badly, that things would get better (reasoning I suspect her mother used. "He's not so bad when he's sober."), or that her mother went through worse, so she should shut up and deal.
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Posted: Tue Jun 05, 2007 11:10 pm
The next day I think that she would feel very detached and generally depressed. After a week I think she would be uneasy and nervous about what the next day would bring, maybe even a little sick. After two months I think that as long as there hadn't been more similar episodes that she would probably have become disconnected from that incident enough to feel pretty normal by her standards, but I think that a slight depression and insecurity would linger beneath the surface leaving her easily upset. If this kind of abuse continued I think that the impact would cause more problems than could be listed here, but if it was just a one time thing I think that she could probably live a normal life.
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Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2007 8:12 pm
My next door neighbor growing up went through a nasty divorce when her kids (2 boys) were about this age. Her husband found where she had been secretly living and beat the living p*ss out of her. He kicked her repeatedly in the face. When she was able to get to a phone she called us and we took pictures. Her kids saw the bloody bruised mess, her husband still got custody (another rant for another time). The kids grew up kind of angry and dejected. They were kind of turned against their mom by their father and will probably be abusers when they get married.
Anyway, my guess is that this girl will grow up, have issues with men and either be emotionally unstable or find an abusive man just like her dad.
Typically boys who witness this behavior become abusers and girls become the next battered wife.
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Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2007 9:33 pm
To answer this question, we would need to know more than just her age for there is a thousand different influences out there that could affect the outcome of her mindset. If she has a trustworthy friend or a teacher who can spot the signs of an abusive family, things in the future might change for her as she would be taught to be stronger and all that good jazz. Though as an optimistic person, I would hope she would learn from her mother's pain and become stronger. However, as we all know, there is no guarantee that this will happen. *shrugs* In everything in life, there are always exception to what we believe, so the answer to this question is not black and white or as cut and dry as we would like, so any answer to come out is a possiblity unless more information was to be disclosed. Or at least that's what I think.
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Posted: Sun Jun 10, 2007 12:13 am
Lol, I know this sounds like I'm being too 'adult'. But I'd call the cops. I say this because I was 12 and that's exactly what I did whenever bad things happened.
-Teshia
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Posted: Sun Jun 10, 2007 12:47 am
Tomorrow will bring a unresponsiveness if this is the first time this has happened, otherwise it may bring false signs of happiness (some kids respond to this kind of trauma by pretending it is normal).
Within a week, this will only have a real effect if it is not an uncommon event in the house. Then, likely she will probably lose a lot of trust in her mother, realizing that everything is not okay, as she will most likely have told the girl. Especially if it happens again. Otherwise, she may just be very scared, on edge, and seemingly emotionless. Within a month, she may have gotten over it if it was the only time it ever happened, or she may go into a self blaming spree. It is difficult by now to analyze, because many things have happened since then. A year later, in all likelihood, the trauma from that is done changing, whatever it is by now, it will be at least partially that way for a long time. Even with counseling, it will have to focus on this at some point, probably a lot, or barely at all, but nothing in between.
If it has any long lasting effects, they will be one or more of the following:
a.) A feeling of worthlessness. The girl will grow up to be abused, as she feels she deserves it (like mommy complex)
b.) She will be an over achiever her whole life, trying too hard to be perfect, and to spread that to her husband/ kids/ etc. It will probably lead to a divorce, or at least a hollow marriage, as she won't accept divorce as perfect. (must make up for it complex)
c.) The child becomes outspoken against this behavior, and possibly other behaviors as well. (martyr complex)
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Posted: Sun Jun 10, 2007 11:22 am
I reckon that for the next few days, depending on her personality, she'd be shaken and unresponsive, but not talk about it to her friends because she didn't want to think about it, or tell her closest friend, but feel pretty useless, as she can't stand up to her father, or do anything about it.
Depending on if the incidents continued, she would become more and more detached from her father, and closer to her mother, and i suppose they'd possibly end up being dependant on each other.
Later in life, she'd be traumatised by it, how much depending on whether or not she'd discussed it and resolved her feelings at other points in her life, but in general she'd be distrusting of men, always thinking of the possibility of abuse.
In general, i would say it'd be less likely that she talks it over with friends, unless up until that time she'd had above average parenting, which, with a potential abuser for a father and someone likely to be abused for a mother (based on what other people have said about Jennifer becoming more likely to be in an abusive relationship) is probably quite unlikely.
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CRANBERRI f r u i t c u p
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Posted: Mon Jun 11, 2007 1:00 pm
In a day, I think she would be very moody, and paranoid of either her father, mother, friends, or just people in general. In a week, I don't expect much difference besides vivid flashbacks of a slideshow of her crying, clips of the screaming, and what her father could have looked like as he was beating her mother. In a year I expect her to become closed, and maybe even a sociopath. I can imagine her in her room, in a corner with the room dark or barely lit, or even back in her own bed, reliving the nightmare that seemed to be her life. As she grows up, I almost believe she'll be a feminist. That, or something of actions that could hurt her more emotionally and mentally, or even physically.
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Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2007 7:11 am
The mother will let the father back in the house, even if they get a restraining order. The little girl will put ground glass in his coffee and he will die a horrible death. In the event that she chooses not to, she will grow up, find a perfect boy that she loves more than she can describe, join the Army, and cheat on the only person she loves just to get out of the Army.
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Posted: Wed Jun 13, 2007 1:51 am
Now, how do you think little Jennifer will react the next day? In a week? Two months? A year? How do you suppose this will affect her life?
Day - A traumatic experience, hard for her to get out of her head, and seeming to loom with the threat of the father.
Week - Probably not much different from the day, but a small part of te tension would be released.
Two months - A haunting memory, perhaps a cause of nightmares.
Year - Nothing more than a memory, not likely to get in the way of normal activity.
Life - An experience of the evils of the world, yet even in the state that the mother was in, she was still able to grant comfort to her child, rather than worrying over herself.
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