Repression for Childhood and It’s Affect on Everyday Life

In the absence of human companionship, children are exposed to all sorts of traumas and repression eventually causing them to cope with reality in harmful ways. It is crucial, primarily in the adolescent years, that children experience a warm loving home so they can manage emotional connections in the future. Imagine not having your mother in your childhood as much as you would’ve liked. She may be physically there but she is not mentally there, thus showing no emotional support. You are not sure why she is never around, all you feel is the absence of her presence. That could feel a little uncomfortable and tragic to say the least. Having both parents in your childhood is key to growing up with no childhood repressions and trauma. As a society, often times we believe a mother’s influence on their daughters and a father’s influence on their sons is sufficient enough because it provides masculinity and femininity for each child. However, socially and historically, a son indeed needs the same amount of exposure and influence from his mother and likewise for a daughter. The absence of a mother for a son can be just as detrimental for his future as it would be due to the absence of his father. The book Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood was published in 2003, however the futuristic feel of the book suggests that it takes place in a realm that has not yet been seen. The storyline starts out with Snowman living in a post-apocalyptic world populated by genetically modified humanoids called Crackers. Although it seems Snowman has managed to survive such a catastrophe, he is exposed to extreme loneliness. Throughout Snowman’s daily existence, we learn of his childhood through his flashbacks. As a child his name was Jimmy which he eventually changed to Snowman. His dysfunctional family caused him to internalize the trauma he faced from his parents constantly bickering, thus leading to his repressed emotions. Due to this deep attachment of his childhood, he views himself as a victim of his past. Jimmy looks for closure from his lack of a strong relationship with his mother by indulging in his sex addiction and violence. In her science fiction novel, Atwood explores the dynamics of the state of human relationships, extinction and evolution, corporate power and commodification and many more. The repression of his mother’s absence in his childhood causes Jimmy to fill the void by abandoning himself to his porn addiction as well as making frail relationships with others.

In Atwood’s novel Oryx and Crake, the readers follow Jimmy throughout his life. Jimmy was raised by a very neglected dad who was too busy with work and never made time for him and a mother who was not mentally stable. Jimmy was not supervised at all and this becomes apparent when he burns his hair. This act would upset most parents but fortunately for Jimmy it just caused his mom and dad to argue. Atwood writes, “Once the fight got going Jimmy felt relieved, because he’d known then that he wouldn’t be punished. All he had to do was say nothing and pretty soon they’d forget why they’d started arguing in the first place” (Atwood 16). This quote depicts the commonality of Jimmy’s parent fighting and his immunity to it. The fights happened so often that the rationale for the argument had been forgotten. This is only one of many borderline abusive tendencies Jimmy’s parents showcased. During Jimmy’s early years, both of Jimmy’s parents worked a lot. However, as he started to get older his mother stayed at home more often. Jimmy’s mother tries to make him believe that she stopped working to spend more time with him however, Jimmy does not believe this to be true because she is often irritated with him and seems uninterested. Jimmy’s mother is constantly irritated at the world and forgets to show affection towards her own son. In a study by Brigid Schulte, she says these tendencies are displayed when parents are depressed or suffering from substance abuse, coincidentally, Jimmy’s mother does both. At one point in Jimmy’s life, he had a nanny names Dolores who he greatly admired because of how affections she was towards him. She made him feel like he was her son however, she left when Jimmy’s mother returned home putting Jimmy right back in his unhealthy situation. It wasn’t long that Jimmy had a supporting and loving influence and as he saw the lacking of his own family he began to think what a mother could be like. Jimmy described his relationship with his mother fake calling her “porcelain” because of her effort to be a “real” mother to him. Occasionally, she would “be carefully dressed, her lipstick smile an echo of the jelly smile on the sandwich, and she would be all sparkling attention, for him and his silly stories”.

The Uncanny by psychologist Sigmund Freud claims that childhood memories and experiences influence the way they express themselves in their adulthood. The Uncanny has primarily looks at the connections between the childhood development and artistic expression, the consequences of emotional repression and mechanisms to save children from knowing too much that may affect them later on. Freud’s theory suggests that anxiety arises from repressed impulses thus concluding, “Every emotional affect transformed by repression into morbid anxiety” therefore, “such cases of anxiety there must be a class in which the anxiety can be shown to come from something repressed which recurs”. It is likely for anxiety to occur when one notices their impulse and tries to repress that impulse. Freud believes uncanny happens when something that as repressed reveals itself, often, during one’s daily life.

For Jimmy’s life as he transitions into college, we see how his unstable environment at home affected him so far. As Jimmy tries to repress his emotions and memories from childhood it only makes matters worse, causing him to, “Roll a few joints and smoke while watching the executions and the porn” (Atwood 196). Jimmy clearly becomes a lot more rebellious during his adolescent years. At a young age, Jimmy becomes addicted to obscene content on the internet such as executions, porn, and animal cruelty. His relationship with woman became quickly tarnished because he did not have a foundation on what a healthy relationship looked like. During his years in college, he had very few girlfriends and the ones he did have were treated fairly awful. Rebellious behavior that inhibits from maintaining meaningful and steady relationships is a clear indicator of a disregardful upbringing. We can see the affect it has on Jimmy’s life as he “no longer thought of women as girlfriends: now they were lovers. There were all married or the equivalent, looking for a chance to sneak around on their husbands…to prove they were still young or else to get even. Or else they were wounded and wanted consolation”.

Jimmy’s uninterested parents are a perfect way to rationalize his irate behavior. A study conducted by the Center for Disease Control found that one in four children suffer parent abuse causing them to have “negative effect on the ability of both men and women to establish and maintain healthy intimate relations in adulthood” (CDC). Similarly, Brigid Schulte from the Washington Post explains a study done by the National Academy of Science on how “the effects of child abuse and neglect…can profoundly influence victims’ physical and mental health, their ability to control emotions and impulses, their achievement in school, and the relationships they form as children and as adults”.

Parenting is a universal concept that molds people into who they are today. Everyone experiences parenting whether it be careless and negligent, warm and loving or something in between. Jimmy’s careless behavior is a clear depiction of how his mother’s actions and behaviors towards him impacted the decisions he made throughout his life. His desire to get any reaction out of her, positive or negative, showed that Jimmy just wanted some sort of acknowledgement from her.