Moving Towards Resilience: An Exploration of the Protagonist’s Traumatic Experiences in ‘Brown’s Drinking From A Bitter Cup’
Abstract
The literary works can be seen as a site for representing traumatic experiences and their consequences on individuals. The present study attempts to explore the traumatized consciousness of a ten years old girl, Sylvia in Brown’s Drinking From a Bitter Cup (2014). For the textual analysis of the novel, the major theoretical insights have been taken from Salmona (2013) & Vickroy’s (2014) concepts of trauma. The findings of the study indicate that individuals from lower strata of society are easy prey to the victimization. Among such lower social strata, the women and children are easily exploited. Sylvia, the protagonist of the novel, is the incarnation of such social inequality and traumatization. She underwent situational trauma due to her mother’s mental disorder and suicide afterwards. The demise of her father and the sexual advances of her step mother’s brother Uncle Charles made her extremely distressed and anguished one. However, by the end of the novel, she recuperated from all these sufferings and decided to live with her baby. Thus, the study helps to explore the concept of trauma and its healing procedure by placing it in a larger context and cultural milieu
Authors
Sara Shahbaz
Lecturer, Department of English, Women University Multan, Punjab, Pakistan
Abdul Rashid
Lecturer , Department of English, Bahaudin Zakariya University Multan, Bahadur Sub Campus Layyah, Punjab, Pakistan
Dr. Sarwat Jabeen
Assistant Professor, Department of English, Bahaudin Zakariya University Multan, Punjab, Pakistan
Keywords
Trauma, Child Abuse, Stockholm Syndrome, Resilience