madebyayi

[madebyayi]

“I wanted my Mommy back, even if she didn’t love me.”

‘You Don’t Really Love Me’, a poem written by Emily Smith.

Read original post here.

Listen to my recital here.

“You Don’t Really Love Me” is a rhetorical, aabb rhymed poem about a young girl and her struggle growing up without her mother. Her mother left her when she was very little and she had no single idea about her mother’s existence, forgetting her bits by bits. Soon enough, she came to a realization that she used to have a mother, only that she left. She then acknowledged the fact that her mother left because she never loved her because if she did then she would have never left. The writer used several literary devices to set the mood and build the readers’ sentiments regarding the story of this poem.

The first three stanzas of the poem is a flashback from when her mother left her and the whole family until she met a new kid who asked her about her mom. The flashback helps the reader to understand her background, knowing she was being left behind when she was only two years old and grew up forgetting little pieces of her mother that remained. The line “And Daddy mentioned you few and few” makes it even more reasonable that she just thought that she did not have a mother, because her father only mentioned her a few times.

In the fourth stanza, a simile is used as a literary device. The line “She asked about my Mommy / And I froze like a vice” tells that she could not do anything when she was being asked about her mother. The simile is used to describe that she was freezing to the question like someone who is getting caught when doing crimes. It shows that she was utterly confused because she grew up not knowing what a Mommy is, considering that she left the family back then. In the fifth stanza, the writer asked a rhetorical question to the new kid. “I then asked, “What’s a Mommy?”” It may seem rhetorical to the new kid and to the readers, but the writer genuinely did not know a Mommy hence she asked the question. In the sixth stanza, when the writer told the new kid she did not have a Mommy, the new kid replied with an irony. ““Of course you have one silly!”” is her reply. It is considered as an irony because the new kid thought she—like everyone else—had a mother, but she actually did not have one.

The mood changes drastically in the last three stanzas from utter confusion to sadness because then the writer started noticing the absence of a mother in her life. “The day I felt most crummy, / Is the day I realized my Mommy didn’t love me” emphasizes how she felt knowing she was unloved by her own mother. The mood gets even sadder with the last stanza, “I wanted my Mommy back, / Even if she didn’t love me.”, because it shows her desperation to have her mother back.

Each literary device used in this poem creates a more intense emotion as the poem goes from one stanza to the other. The writer tries to emphasize the sadness and desperation she felt through the use of literary devices and it works. It is normal for a child to experience despair when they are being left behind by a parent, especially realizing they have always been unloved despite being a child that was born from the same person. The writer did a good job portraying that emotion through her writing and the literary devices she used.

#analysis: poem #poems #literary analysis

[madebyayi]

“A pair of feet walk through a sea of glass.”

‘The Feet and The Source’, a poem written by Sierra Chaffe.

Read original post here.

Listen to my recital here.

“The Feet And The Source” is a symbolism poem about an abandoned pair of feet that suffers alone, hurting and bleeding, without having anybody to give them aid. This poem shows how difficult it could be for children to be abandoned by everyone, their parents included, no matter the cause. Children and/or teenagers, in their growing age, have to be treated well and with affection for these factors can significantly affect their lives in the future. This poem tells the perspective of a child that felt as if they were abandoned by everyone through the symbolism of the feet that walk alone.

A variety of literary devices are used in this poem and one that stands out the most is symbolism. In the first stanza, we read about the abused and abandoned feet which represents a child that wanders alone in this world after getting abused and abandoned by, most likely, their own parents since if it were not because of their parents they would come home to them. Knowing they could not even come to their parents for help, the parents might be the problem. The sea of glass can also be taken as a symbolism which signifies all the things that hurt the pair of feet. So the line “A pair of feet walk through a sea of glass,” could mean a child that is suffering alone from all the pains that hurt them.

The second stanza contains a simile in the line “Bleeding like the bloody wounds of a soldier.” It is used to compare the pain that the feet have to endure to the bloody wounds of a soldier. The writer is implying that the pain from getting abandoned alone is equal to the pain of getting wounded as a soldier.

An imagery is then used in the third stanza. The writer tries to create a scene where the readers can use their senses to imagine. “Shrieking in terror, / A flash before the sea, / A twinkle of hope comes, / From near above, / The source so radiant and placid continues toward the ruby and pearl shining feet.” The descriptive words are used to appeal to readers' senses, with the hope of the readers to picture the scenery in their heads.

Another symbolism is used in the last stanza, where it says ‘And carries the weeping feet into the arms of an angel’. The arms of an angel symbolizes a good person that came as a helping hand to the abandoned child. An abused and abandoned child that has nobody else in the world surely would consider anyone who offers them help an angel because of their kindness. That is the message the writer is trying to deliver through the last line.

After all, the message is being delivered perfectly with the use of literary devices. Literary devices allow the writer to convey a deeper meaning that goes beyond what is written. This poem might look confusing at the first read but it has its own meaning, a tragedy that often occurs caused by many factors. It is important to not let a child and/or teenager get abandoned, for they still need parental love and support. Be kind and be there to help them so they would not feel as if they are going through the difficulties alone. The writer has done a great job bringing that message with this poem.

#analysis: poem #poems #literary analysis

[madebyayi]

“I have decided that all I can ever feel for you is anger.”

‘To Mom, from A.’, a prose written by Angel.

Read original post here.

Listen to my recital here.

The prose “To mom, from A.” tells a personal experience of a teenager getting left behind by their mother and causing them to experience rage because they struggle to accept the fact that she left them and presumably her husband—due to the mentions of ‘him’ several times—behind. There are several literary devices that are being used in this prose to help the readers feel the emotions the writer is trying to convey.

In the first stanza, the writer used literary devices to support the emotions and messages they are trying to convey in their writing like metaphor. The line “... slip your way back into the caverns of the mind of mine …” consists of a metaphor. The word “caverns” does not actually mean there are literal caverns on the writer’s head, it means the writer’s subconscious mind. The writer used that word to emphasize that they will never allow their mom to come back to any parts of their mind, even the subconscious part where people would usually think without realizing it. From the previous lines, it can be inferred that it is because of the anger they have toward their mom. The last line also consists of another metaphor, “... for I am at the edge of the world trying to escape the grief and loss you have given me.” ‘The edge of the world’ is a metaphor used to describe how hard someone will work or try to do something—the extreme lengths they would go to achieve something. And in this case, the writer would go to that extent to forget the grief and loss that haunt them.

In the second stanza, another literary device is being used. Personification is used in the line “... I can see the lie dancing its way in the color of your brown eyes.” The word ‘dancing’ is being used to give a human attribute to the word ‘lie’. The ‘lie’ does not actually ‘dance’ in the mother’s eyes, it means that the writer knows that their mother is lying to them when she said she will still be around them, because it is apparent in her eyes.

Hyperbole is also used as a literary device in the third stanza. From the line “... if I did not feel the rage crushing waves weighing on top of my chest I know I would fall apart and melt into the sea.” Hyperbole is used in this line to express the rage that the writer is feeling toward their mother. The writer emphasizes how much they hate their mother for leaving and that it drives them to extreme rage to the extent they can not even feel any other emotions such as sadness.

The fourth stanza has personification and hyperbole in it. The line “... I feel pain that lives inside of my heart” has a personification because the writer gave the ‘pain’ a human attribute that is ‘lives’. It does not mean that the ‘pain’ actually lives like a human does, but it can be felt from their heart because the pain is there. Another hyperbole is used in the line “... you left all the broken pieces behind.” The writer is trying to stress the fact that the mother’s departure broke everything into pieces, meaning things are unlikely to be fixed like how it was, which she then left behind.

This prose contains heavy use of hyperbole to express the extreme rage that the writer is feeling. They can get over the fact that their mother had left them and the other family members behind even though she said to be around. They can not handle the grief and loss that they feel nothing but anger toward their mother and the emotion can be seen and felt clearly from line to line, from stanza to stanza.

#analysis: prose #prose #literary analysis

[madebyayi]

“Daddy, Daddy please come back.”

‘A Story in the Stanzas (Daddy, Daddy)’, a poem written by Leigh Robertson

Read original post here.

Listen to my recital here.

The poem ‘A Story In The Stanzas (Daddy, Daddy)’ tells a story about a little kid in their eleven years old age who experienced a family separation. Their parents got divorced and their father moved out of their house. It took a long time for them to finally deal with that fact. This poem is told in the form of a soliloquy, the writer is speaking to themself, expressing the loss and hurt they were feeling when their father left them. Especially when they asked their father to come back in the last two stanzas. The writer also wrote this poem in abab rhyme, it affects the mood of the poem and adds its appeal in a way.

The first stanza contains a flashback which explains the background of this poem. The writer said that their father broke them when they were eleven years old and they claimed to know no worse pain at that moment. The line ‘I knew no worse pain’ might be counted as a hyperbole, but considering the fact that it was what the writer felt during their childhood, it might not be a hyperbole. They wanted to emphasize how painful it was when their father left them to move out.

Another literary device is used in the fourth stanza, which is simile in the line “Tears would always run down my face / Like rain from the skies”. It shows the writer’s condition after their father left them, they would always have tears running down their face because they kept crying. They perpetually cried so hard that the tears felt like rain that fell from the sky. Nonetheless, it often occurs to a child that experiences the same thing.

Hyperbole is also used in the fifth stanza, where the writer wrote down “I hung my head in utter sorrow”. They did not actually hang their head somewhere, it is only because they went through extreme despair that they felt as if they were being surrounded by nothing but utter sorrow. Everything reminded them of their father and it always brought them to tears. Lastly, in the last two stanzas repetitions are being used as a literary device. The line “Daddy, Daddy” is being repeated multiple times in order to emphasize the desperation that the writer had, wanting their father to get back to them.

The literary devices used in this poem are variable, each one of them helps to build the mood and emotions which the writer tried to convey. The use of hyperbole is quite usual for it helps to highlight the extreme extent of the writer’s emotions. It is not rare for a child to feel sorrow when their parents get divorced, they would be sad for days and take a rather long time to finally deal with the fact. However, there is nothing that they can do unless crying and silently wishing for the family to get back together again. The writer had done a great job using the literary devices to depict that situation.

#analysis: poem #poem #literary analysis

[madebyayi]

“Were we not enough for him?”

‘Gabi, a Girl in Pieces’, a young adult novel by Isabel Quintero.

Book review: Goodreads

The death of a parent has to be one of the most stressful life events that a child or adolescent can experience. It is a tragic, irreversible loss which eventually will lead to psychological distress considering how challenging it is to accept and grieve the experience. Bereaved adolescents typically exhibit acute grief reactions, sleep problems, uncontrollable anger, irritability, and behavioral problems especially when they suffer from unresolved grief. Following the death of a parent, adolescents may experience distress, anxiety, depression, and difficulty focusing in their activities.

In “Gabi, A Girl in Pieces”, trauma plays a role as its running theme. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, “trauma occurs when a person is overwhelmed by events or circumstances and responds with intense fear, horror, and helplessness”. Gabi, the main protagonist of the novel, is one of those adolescents who suffer from trauma caused by parental loss. Gabi’s largest source of trauma throughout the novel is her father’s struggles with addiction, which eventually led him to his death because of overdose. She struggles to deal with her grief and is unable to turn to others for support.

This novel is written in diary format, using the first point of view which allows us as the readers to know what is going on inside Gabi’s mind. In one of the diary entries, dated February 23, Gabi had written “I don’t know if I can write anymore. I want to lift my pen, but it’s heavy. Almost like the tip is chained to my desk.” The writer uses a literary device in that line, that is hyperbole. It suggests Gabi’s loss of motivation to write after the death of her father. It is as if she can no longer lift her pen because it is ‘heavy’, but it is actually just because she is still grieving for her father that she is losing focus on everything else she does on a daily basis. There is also a line of rhetorical questions. Gabi had written “Did my dad really want to die? Were we not enough for him? Was this world not enough? Or was it too much?” in her diary entry. The writer used rhetorical questions as its literary devices. It is as if the writer is trying to affect the readers emotionally by making Gabi keep questioning the death of her father again and again, meaning that she still could not get it over with.

The writer used several literary devices in her novel to emphasize how much the death of her father affected the main character, and because it is written from the first point of view, the readers can feel the emotions just as much. Gabi is grieving and she lost motivation to continue her life, though that does not necessarily mean she has stopped continuing to live—she is still living her life, it is just a bit harder to go through for her. That is a common occurrence in bereaved adolescents and it is nobody’s fault. Teenagers like Gabi only need guidance and care in order to go back to their normal state and that is where the remaining parent and/or functional adults around them play their role.

References

Stikkelbroek, Y., Bodden, D.H., Reitz, E. et al. (2016). Mental health of adolescents before and after the death of a parent or sibling. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry 25, 49–59. Retrieved June 2, 2022, from https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-015-0695-3 

Apelian, E., & Nesteruk, O. (2017). REFLECTIONS OF YOUNG ADULTS ON THE LOSS OF A PARENT IN ADOLESCENCE. International Journal of Child, Youth and Family Studies, 8(3/4), 79-100. Retrieved June 22, 2022, from https://doi.org/10.18357/ijcyfs83/4201718002 

#analysis: book #books

[madebyayi]

“He left us once, when I was ten or eleven, said he couldn’t deal with us anymore.”

‘All the Bright Places’, a young adult novel by Jennifer Niven.

Book review: Goodreads

Parents are the first ones a child is depending on, hence one’s personality is derived by how they are being treated by their parents. Are they being taken care of by their parents? Or are they being treated badly and getting neglected by their parents? Everything will lead to the shaping of a child’s well-being and personality traits. If parents are neglecting their child, it might lead to several mental health problems like personality disorder. Borderline personality disorder is a personality disorder in which the individuals suffer from depression, mood swings, and suicidal behavior as the impact of bad experiences of interpersonal relationship in family environment. There are two major causes of this: separation and neglect, and parental maltreatment. Separation and neglect including divorce will halt the children from getting security and love from their parents, and it will affect children’s emotional and psychological development.

Theodore Finch is one of the protagonists from Jennifer Niven’s “All The Bright Places” who suffers from borderline personality disorder. His family environment contributes to the development, and the major factor comes from his father who neglected him. His mother seems to neglect him too after his father left the family. The divorce of Finch’s parents is the first cause of his borderline personality disorder, which leads to the separation and neglect. Finch refers to his father as “he’s selfish and rotten” (Niven, 2015:31) because he thinks his father is a bad figure. The divorce is then followed by neglect and separation by his father. Finch has been neglected since he was little despite the need for a father figure. His father disrupted his feelings by neglecting him, proving his failure as a father. Finch was supposed to come to his mother for aid but she also neglected him, not giving him the help and attention he actually needed. The lack of parental love and affection is the major cause of Finch’s emotional instability. He fears of being abandoned, suffers from severe anxiety and interpersonal stresses, often experiences emotional insecurity because he feels worthless to other people, and he has the tendencies to do suicidal attempts because of the void in his heart.

It can be concluded that neglect and separation done by parents to their children may cause emotional disruption which eventually will lead to severe problems like borderline personality disorder. Children and teenagers are in their development hence parents’ love and attention are badly needed. Parents are where the children seek for security and if the parents fail at or refuse to give them what they need, it is only humane and natural for them to experience the disruption.

References

Stern, A. (1938). Psychoanalytic Investigation of and Therapy in the Border Line Group of Neuroses. The Psychoanalytic Quarterly. Retrieved May 27, 2022, from https://doi.org/10.1080/21674086.1938.11925367

#analysis: book #books

[madebyayi]

“Why did she leave us?”

‘When Stars Are Scattered’, a graphic novel written by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed

Book Review: Goodreads

Omar and Hassan are two refugees who fled Somalia and are stuck in a refugee camp located in Kenya with no biological parents aiding them. Omar is the older sibling, meanwhile Hassan is the younger sibling. They no longer had a father and they did lose their mother, not because of death but separation during the war so they live in the camp on their own.

Shouldering the burden to take care of his younger sibling and also himself at such a young age, Omar lives with seizures, loss, fears, and doubts. Hassan, on the other hand, has disabilities and is unable to speak clearly due to loss of parents at a really young age, causing him to receive so little knowledge about the world because he only has his inexperienced older brother who also suffers from the same trauma. Hassan has it worse, because then he has a very limited ability to function and learn. Hassan also suffers from nightmares almost every night. It shows how children would experience and re-experience the traumatic event over and over in their memories when they have a trauma reaction, which eventually will lead to repeated nightmares or episodes that could develop into post-traumatic stress disorder. Hassan’s inability to speak and understand the English language also caused a state of confusion and distress.

Omar is also seen to have anger issues at times. He has to experience difficulties in managing his anger and guilt towards the smallest thing. Sometimes he would blame himself for things that went wrong in their lives. Luckily, they have several good people surrounding them, one of them being Fatuma, the old lady who lives near their tent. Fatuma would take care of them like they are her children, providing them food and warmth that they can not receive from their biological parents. At the very least, with the help of Fatuma and a few more people around them that genuinely care about them, Omar and Hassan manage to continue living their lives in the camp until they can finally meet their mother.

References

Patel, A. (2018, June 20). Children separated from parents could face nightmares, PTSD down the road: experts - National | Globalnews.ca. Global News. Retrieved March 31, 2022, from https://globalnews.ca/news/4286160/health-impact-family-separation/

#analysis: books #graphic novel #book

[madebyayi]

“Maybe they know best, but maybe they don’t.”

The Blind Side (2009) dir. John Lee Hancock

Watch the movie: Netflix

The Blind Side (2009) tells a story about an African-American teenager who suffered from a brutal childhood and no GPA on record, Michael Oher. He is a homeless boy and he carries extra clothes in a plastic bag. Somehow he got recruited to a school only because of his athletic ability. But then on a miraculous day, he gets adopted by the Tuohys family.

Before he moved in with the Tuohys, Michael lived a truly unpleasant life. He was living in poverty and in an environment of gangs. Her mother was a drug addict who was unable to provide the care she and her son needed. They got separated forcefully when Michael was being taken away by law enforcement from his mother. He was deeply affected because of the separation. The sudden loss of his mother then made him feel unwanted, unloved and abandoned. Due to that reason, Michael is turning into a quiet person who always refuses to talk about his family or his past. The fact that he is a black teenager living in a mostly white institution does not make anything better, in fact it gets him to feel the sense of not belonging. The absence of people that actually care about him leaves him unable to make a secure attachment to any strong base.

Michael had a hard time opening up to his new family at first, he still does not talk much around them. He has trouble communicating to people in general, especially with the Tuohys as his family. The memory he has about his mother affects him in his idea of family and commitment. He is also not doing well at school. The trauma he experienced gets him to develop problems forming relationships with adults and a hypersensitive fear response. He is wary of adults, even those who appear to be reliable because he used to be treated poorly. The trauma stays with him for a while until he can finally make connections with the Tuohys with constant care and attention they have been giving him.

References

Hernandez, C. (2020, March 27). Review: The Blind Side – Off the Leash. Off the Leash. Retrieved April 5, 2022, from https://srhsoffleash.org/1419/reviews/movie-review-the-blind-side/

Separating Families and Creating Trauma. (2018, June 18). Child Mind Institute. Retrieved April 5, 2022, from https://childmind.org/blog/separating-families-and-creating-trauma/

#analysis: movie #movies

[madebyayi]

“It is not something me or anyone else was ever meant to endure.”

‘A Motherless Child’, a short story by Farista Sairuv

Read the story here.

Listen to my recital here.

The writer of this short story also deals with the grief of losing their mother and is being told with the first point of view without any dialogue. The line ‘All I have is my grief’ is written in the first paragraph of the story, emphasizing how they felt after being separated from their mother. They were taken by ‘men with black uniforms’ to somewhere they are not familiar with, they were given a new family which are complete strangers to them, forcing them to take those people as their real family.

But they wanted their real mother, and it had them screaming and crying. That is what happens when a child is forcibly separated from their parents. Their heart rate will go up and their body will release a flood of stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline, which might kill off neurons and wreak dramatic, long-term damage psychologically and to the physical structure of the brain. It will end up making the child have neuroticism.

They seem to fail at making connections with their new family because they keep missing their actual mother. The sudden separation had attacked their most fundamental and critical bonds in human biology the moment they were being taken away from their biological caregiver. Ever since a child was born, they were naturally attached and connected to their biological caregiver, and their sense of what safety means depends on that relationship. Without it, the parts of the brain that deal with attachment develop differently. When the writer thought ‘They were keeping me here without making an effort to get to know who I really was. Without forming a connection with me. I floated like a ghost …’ it  refers to how no connection to their new family caused their brain to work differently with how it is supposed to be. Things that are not threatening then become threatening to them.

Nothing gets better as the days go by and the writer is stuck in constant grief and fear. They can not live their days like how they used to be. It is written that ‘As time passes and I find myself longer and longer separated from my original family the hurt only increases.’ and ‘Until I don't know how I'm still alive. Until I want to not be anymore.’ These lines serve as proof that the main character has a high neuroticism and experiences negative emotions such as anxiety, fear, anger, and frustration. The loss of parents can indeed cause depression and emotional numbness that leads to trauma and self-harm behavior.

References

Baca, E., & Díaz, J. (2022, January 26). Childhood Separation From Parents and Self-Harm in Adolescence: A Cross-Sectional Study in Mainland China. NCBI. Retrieved April 2, 2022, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8825502/

Wan, W. (2018, June 18). What separation from parents does to children: 'The effect is catastrophic'. The Washington Post. Retrieved April 2, 2022, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/what-separation-from-parents-does-to-children-the-effect-is-catastrophic/2018/06/18/c00c30ec-732c-11e8-805c-4b67019fcfe4_story.html

#analysis: short story #short stories

[madebyayi]

“Now I am locked out of knowing.”

‘A Whisper in the Wind’, a poem written by Jesse Day

Read original post here.

Listen to my recital here.

The writer of this poem deals with the loss of their mother, which left them behind without trace. They seem to not understand the reasons behind her departure because she did not even give them a notice about it. The writer then stated that they are ‘confused and disillusioned by being alone’. Separation from parents, especially mothers, can indeed bring traumatic repercussions for children’s lives down the line. Hence the writer added the next line, ‘Nobody should lose a parent—a mom.’

Next the writer wrote ‘Now I am locked out of knowing—knowing so little and so unaware of so much’. Due to the absence of their mother, it is inescapable for them to not have anyone telling them about the world. We can also notice the grief they suffered from through these words. A child who is consumed by grief may lack the psychic energy to learn or even to engage in life. It gets even worse from that very point, because they do not have anyone to encourage them nor do they have any energy to engage in life.

From the next line, we learn that ‘Only a mom helps a son through times when pure love is her only motivation’. It implies how mothers would help their sons or children through hard times without asking for a payback, because their pure love towards their children is enough to make them lend a hand. Therefore, when a child is separated from their mother, there is a huge chance for them to not have anybody else who would voluntarily help them.

The writer then wrote ‘Mom, you taught me to love, to care and to believe, you brought life into my lungs and shared precious blood to my heart.’ The attachment bond between a mother and her child is first started in the womb. Even before the child was born, the mother had already taught them many things including feeling emotions. The line ‘you brought life into my lungs and shared precious blood to my heart’ also implies a mother’s pregnancy where the bond is formed for the first time.

Now that they no longer have their mother around, they sometimes wish for her to be there when they need her, but she has already found a better ‘home’ and they know they can not wish for more. The only thing they can do is to find comfort within the ‘whisper in the wind’, which is the only thing remaining after she left them, because they are lost and they can not even find where she is right now.

References

How Mother-Child Separation Causes Neurobiological Vulnerability Into Adulthood. (2018, June 20). Association for Psychological Science. Retrieved April 4, 2022, from https://www.psychologicalscience.org/publications/observer/obsonline/how-mother-child-separation-causes-neurobiological-vulnerability-into-adulthood.html

Wallace, M. (2018, June 15). The Effect of Separating Children From Their Parents. Psychology Today. Retrieved April 4, 2022, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/how-raise-happy-cooperative-child/201806/the-effect-separating-children-their-parents

#analysis: poem #poems

[madebyayi]

“I did lose my way.”

Avatar: The Last Airbender (TV Series 2005-2008)

Watch the series: Google Play

The well-known OG second lead, scratch Prince scratch Fire Lord Zuko.

He was the villain of the story at first. However, as the story goes by, we get to unveil so many things about his layered characterizations as well as the motive behind them.

Growing up as the crown prince with one older sister, Zuko was burdened by the responsibility of being the perfect son ever since he was a kid. His father, Ozai, had always been mean to everyone including his own family, but his mother Ursa was a very tender and loving woman. She took good care of her children and always treated people around her gently. Things were already bad in their household and everything went worse when Ursa got banished from the castle—nobody ever knew the actual reason why. Zuko, who was very fond of Ursa, could not respond to the banishment well.

It is said that ever since Ursa left Zuko and the castle, he started going through a sudden change in behavior as well. There was an increased anger and aggressiveness, he also became more detached to everyone else especially his father Ozai and his older sister Azula. Negative moods like anger, guilt, and shame were dominating himself.

Thankfully Zuko had his old uncle Iroh, who was as tender as his mother Ursa. Zuko might have been lost the moment Ursa left him, but Iroh was always there to guide him back to the right track. Being as gentle as he was, there was not a day where Iroh did not treat Zuko patiently. Due to his genuine love for his nephew, Iroh tried to get Zuko back to his old self by also giving him new experiences and lessons every single day. After several incidents and with the help of everyone around him, Zuko eventually managed to get rid of his trauma while slowly gaining back the control over his own mind.

#analysis: tv series #tv series

[madebyayi]

“Maybe adults don’t care. But we do.”

‘Nowhere Boy’, a middle-grade novel written by Katherine Marsh.

Book Review: Goodreads

“No matter what, I’m not going to abandon you.”

This book is about Ahmed, a fourteen years old boy who sailed away from the torments in Syria to Belgium.

The book started with a scene where Ahmed lost his dear father who sank into the ocean when he was trying to fix the ship’s broken machine. He already lost the rest of his family in Syria, so he held onto the hope that his father was not dead—only gone for a while. Therefore, Ahmed continued his journey alone. Someone initially tried to take him in but he turned out to be a smuggler, so he ran away. Eventually, all alone, Ahmed ended up in a basement of someone’s home.

Due to his fear, he stayed in the basement for days, surviving by stealing food from the owner’s kitchen. Until he met the family’s son, Max. Ahmed is not fluent in English, however they could still try to understand each other. Ahmed suffered from nightmare every night; being haunted by the death of his family and not having his father to reassure him, body trembling because of the cold and the trauma. Fear followed him wherever he was, because he was separated with the only family he had left. Thankfully, Max is a good friend. Not only he let Ahmed stayed in his house’s basement and gave him food and clothes, Max gave Ahmed comfort when it was needed. Max always convinced Ahmed that he would not abandon him, no matter how many troubles he had to go through, because he cared and he did not want Ahmed to suffer alone.

#analysis: book #books

[madebyayi]

Introduction: Topic

Motherhood by Leon Goupil.

Parent-child separation occurs due to many reasons, be it voluntarily or the otherwise, up until today. These reasons include conflict, war, disaster, persecution, etc. This portfolio will examine the effects on children and teenagers of parent-child separation due to several of those reasons by breaking down art and literary works.

Children in general depend on and need their parents’ guidance for their own emotional well-being to survive and thrive. Parents possess a critical role in building their children’s healthy development as well as protecting them from psychological consequences of significant stress. Separation from parents can be quite dangerous for children and teenagers because it removes their most fundamental protection and it may possibly lead to a new trauma. Overall, the impact on children and teenagers are consistently negative especially in terms of their development, well-being, and mental stability. Throughout history, orphaned or abandoned children were not likely to fare well so it is important to address how damaging separation could be even until this day. Recent example of the damage caused by this issue can be found in the studies of Romanian children who were raised in abysmally low-quality orphanages. From the studies, researches have shown how children who live in institutional care have suffered from poorer learning and social and emotional behavior due to the lack of stimulation and the opportunity to engage in relationships. However, how the children are affected can also depend on other factors such as whether the separation occurred voluntarily or not, how long it lasts, and what kind of care exists in its wake. Thus, when it comes to children all over the world who have been experiencing separation from their parents, we need everyone to be aware and concerned as to provide the guidance, stimulation and care that can help them in the long run.

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[madebyayi]

Introduction: Writer

Hi! The name is Lakuning Bekti Airiani and yeah, I’m aware, long name isn’t it? Therefore I simply go by Ayi. Please do refer me with they/them or she/her pronouns! I am an ISFJ 2w3 269, that’s one real good thing… until you hear about the Scorpio stellium in my placements. I am a nice Scorpio nonetheless so rest assured! Ever heard of “what goes around, comes around?” That’s how I live my day.

An avid indie music enjoyer—not the coffee shop and dusk sucker type of beat, just the moderate one. I read books, not so much, but dark academia and middle-grade books always got me. The series Avatar: The Last Airbender practically raised me and shaped my whole personality traits. Also a huge fan of Marvel and DC Comics, I am basically just a geek.

Currently majoring in English Studies at the University of Indonesia and… is still trying their best. This portfolio is made to be submitted as an entry for my Thematic Analysis of English Contemporary Literature course.

Pretty brief, yeah? Thanks for tuning in, earthlings. Hope you enjoy every little thing I have brought into this portfolio.

p.s. please drink enough water.

#intro #about writer