A House, a Home: Examining the Relationship Between Abandonment and Memory Through Minco’s The Address and Sumar’s Silent Waters

Abstract

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: The aim of the article is to deepen the understanding of the process of coping with a traumatic situation or experience and coming to terms with emotional or material loss over a period of time with reference to historical narratives The Address by Marga Minco and Silent Waters by Sabiha Sumar. THE RESEARCH PROBLEM AND METHODS :The research problem is to analyze the relationship shared between emotional and materialistic abandonment and the effects of such adversities on children. The research method is the method of comparative narrative analysis: a thematic analysis of the two narratives with the help of drawing a correlation between a short story and a film, both depicting the post-traumatic lives of their protagonists. THE PROCESS OF ARGUMENTATION: The research process was a comparative analysis. The first step was developing theoretical foundations for understanding the problem. Then, I focused on the comparative analysis of the two narratives.  RESEARCH RESULTS :The comparative analysis of the collected material showed the need for history to rely on the power of narrative in order to understand conflict and trauma. Through the plot of both texts, it is seen that memory and abandonment share a complex relationship with each other. Trauma, even though left much behind with the intention to move on, may garner in present life, causing one to take life-altering decisions. CONCLUSIONS, RCOMMENDATIONS AND APPLICABLE VALUE OF RESEARCH: There is a need to understand the relationship shared by abandonment, subsequent trauma, and memory. These narratives shed light on the need to understand collective trauma faced by children and the way that trauma is carried on through the generations. In the quest to move on, trauma seldom rests, and war-based atrocities direct individual lives much after their physical culmination.