Overcoming Childhood Trauma

Bride, Booker, Brooklyn, and Rain all had to endure some type of trauma in their childhood. Bride was treated harshly and neglected. Booker suffered desperately over his brother’s murder. Brooklyn lived with an incompetent parent who was blind to others abusing her. Rain had the hardest childhood of all. Her mother sold her to men sexually and eventually threw her out on the street to fend for herself.

The notion that abuse can be overcome is one that is addressed using these four characters as examples. What becomes clear throughout the novel is that while they all manage to arrive at a place where they can at least function within society, there are certain parts of their soul, their very personalities, that are damaged for good. This underscores and places emphasis on the criminal component of childhood trauma and abuse, and the fact...