Child Narrators as Voices of Resilience

(A Comparative Study of 'Room' and 'The Secret Life of Bees')

  • Nouf A. Alkhattabi College of Languages and Translation, Jeddah University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
الكلمات المفتاحية: Trauma, identity, child narrators, resilience, Emma Donoghue, Sue Monk Kidd

الملخص

One description of childhood trauma is anything that frightens or damages a person’s safety in childhood and is linked to the well-being of the self. When focusing on child characters, researchers have explored themes of self-development, showing how children confront obstacles. This paper,  focuses on two novels: Room by Emma Donoghue and The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, it adopts a qualitative and interpretive approach based on a comparative literary analysis to examine the theme of resilience through child narrators. It is crucial to highlight childhood trauma in the context of the discussed novels, which shapes the emotional initiatives of innocent narrators and influences their relationships and subjectivity. If closely examined, the plots stress how family bonds, as well as community structures, help in the process of healing and reform. The paper also suggests that employing child narrators brings to the foreground a message of hope when narrating trauma and resilience by depicting the extremes of the human spirit and capacity to survive and even prevail in the worst of circumstances. These works and the psychological analysis of the study highlight the fundamental importance of stability and loving care to effectively prevent trauma from stunting a child’s development.

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منشور
2025-08-21
كيفية الاقتباس
Nouf A. Alkhattabi. (2025). Child Narrators as Voices of Resilience: (A Comparative Study of ’Room’ and ’The Secret Life of Bees’). Journal of Arts, Literature, Humanities and Social Sciences, (123), 503-516. https://doi.org/10.33193/JALHSS.124.2025.1520
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