Sugar by Bernice McFadden Essay Example

Although a majority of psychologists argue that many of the personality aspects cannot be changed, I would still maintain that brain biology would theoretically change and shape a person's personality. One would argue that the aspects of personality are deep and hard to change, just as one would change a sociopath to a saint.(Grand & Salberg, 2016) One of the major factors that influence personality change is trauma and unpleasant experiences than the more pleasurable experiences, arguably since the human race is about the development of adaptation and beating imminent threats that put survival on the verge of extinction. In the book "Sugar" by McFadden, the author brings out this aspect of personality change through the nasty experiences and generational traumas of characters and how they perceive virtues such as love as well as their views on family.

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Sugar, who has grown up witnessing the nasty ordeals that her mother, Bertie Mae suffered while staying with Ciel Brown can arguably have made her personality stronger in shoving the hardships of life away and instilled the aspect of perseverance in her. As seen from the book, Sugar does not listen to the nasty things that the residents of Bigelow have to say about her (PenguinRandomhouse.com, n.d.). Although psychologists argue that fear is a motivating factor in the change of personality, the same fear of the unseen often times instill the discipline of perseverance and coping with the adversities the hard way. Bertie Mae's ordeals such as battery and emotional suffering greatly impacted courage and cultivated deep sense to persevere and not giving up.

Fear of physical pain is a significant source of psychological torture. However, how one responds to the pain influences the adaptability and survival mechanisms of a person. For instance, a person who makes the choice to move on and persevere builds a stronger coping mechanism on future events that may cause pain. Sugar, as portrayed, felt bad and suffered emotional torture from the experiences of Bertie Mae. Nonetheless, this built her ability to cope and develop a stronger personality in dealing with future events that may bring pain without giving up.

It does not go without saying how poverty can greatly influence the personality of a person. No doubt, the Lacey women, Shirley Brown, and Bertie Mae lived a hand to mouth life, that apparently made the family break up, each in search of greener pastures. It can be seen that Sugar's mother had actually sought better life at Ciel Browns as she later went home to wait on Sugar and in the meantime died (McFadden, 2001). However, Sugar learned that family should come before everything. This is because of the unconditional love that she got from her ailing mother and the Lacey women, not to mention that Sugar had to go out and be her own girl as she did not want to just sit about and witness the emaciated family unable to support itself. This taught her to always value family and bring it first in everything.

Generational traumas could influence the trust we accord to others to a great extent. Based on the experiences that we go through, one may feel he should learn to trust nobody or could also make him trust significant others. Research revealed that most people who have undergone childhood traumas trust few people and tend to keep most things for themselves.(Leng, 2017) On the other side, however, out of traumas, the strongest bonds of trust may be created. From the book Sugar, we find that despite the nasty experiences Sugar had undergone, she mysteriously trusts Pearl Thomas who has been undergoing the healing of losing his daughter. Perhaps, Sugar had learned that during hard times, there is always a friend who sticks with you no matter what. From the book, the Lacey ladies always stuck to each other and Sugar, hoping for better days, although the future seemed to have a different take on that.

One would raise a debate as to whether public opinion may shape how people perceive themselves and their self-esteem. In most instances, how people talk about others make them value themselves less and maybe hate themselves for being who they are. However, the best method to overcome this feeling is self-acceptance. From the book, Sugar has all along accepted who she is. This could be from the experiences of the Lacey women and Bertie Mae (PenguinRandomhouse.com, n.d.). Although they have faced terrible ordeals, this has not robbed them of the hope of the future and the acceptance of their positions to which people's opinions cannot change. Their only vision is doing all they have to do to make their future better. When Sugar moves to Bigelow, many people have negative things about her, to which none of them she pays attention to. This could be because none of the villagers there have seen the darkest of days as she has except for Pearl Taylor.

From the book, it is crystal clear that the author uses fiction to maintain that generational traumas build important regard to how people view love, family, and trust. Just as every cloud has a silver lining, generational traumas are not just about building negative approaches to life. They still can act as a strong rock bottom on which to build a foundation and influence other people. Sugar for instances does not hate herself and her mother for her state of affairs. She instead maintains her love for Bertie Mae, Lacey women and all that comprise her family.

Evidently, she wonders why her mother had to die. Her love for her family pushes her to return home to the very sight of her suffering family. One can arguably say that the love and resilience keep her going to the very extent that she does not pay attention to what people say but till show love for Pearl just as her mother showed her. Bertie did not use poverty and suffering from Brown as an excuse to hate and disregard family. in conclusion, I would say that generational traumas build strong love, trust, and regard for family.

References

Grand, S., & Salberg, J. (Eds.). (2016). Trans-generational trauma and the other: Dialogues across history and difference (Vol. 83). Taylor & Francis.

https://conservancy.umn.edu/bitstream/handle/11299/167793/Review Sugar.pdf;sequence=1Leng, C. (2017). Teaching Historic Trauma: Centering the generational trauma of Khmer youth.

McFadden, B. (2001). Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice. [online] Conservancy.umn.edu. Available at: https://conservancy.umn.edu/bitstream/handle/11299/167793/Review%20Sugar.pdf;sequence=1 [Accessed 25 Oct. 2018].

PenguinRandomhouse.com. (n.d.). Sugar by Bernice L. McFadden - Reading Guide - PenguinRandomHouse.com. [online] Available at: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/332257/sugar-by-bernice-l-mcfadden/9780452282209/readers-guide/ [Accessed 25 Oct. 2018].