Transgenerational Cycle Of Abuse In 'The First Time She Drowned'

People are too busy running away from their monsters to check over their shoulders, missing the opportunity to see a small shadow running after them. The novel, “The First Time She Drowned” by Kerry Kletter targets the theme on parental mental and physical abuse. The main idea of the novel is that the transgenerational cycle of abuse can only be broken through confrontation. Three points to help understand the main idea of the novel is, first, Cassie O’Malley’s (the protagonist) mother never truly resolves her own abusive past. Secondly, Cassie opens a door to healing by confronting her inner demons through a therapist. The last point is the final confrontation that gives Cassie a sense of clarity and freedom from the cycle of abuse. For example, when Cassie O’Malley went through the years of abuse from her mother and enrols herself into a college, she thinks those years of abuse are far behind her, but she doesn’t realize that the only way her past
The three points of the mother never settling her own abusive past, Cassie talking to someone about her past for the first time, and finding the clarity through confrontation, all helped construct an understanding of the main idea of this novel. Transgenerational cycle of abuse was broken with Cassie, when she decided to talk about it and to get the help she knew she needed. Another novel similar to “The First Time She Drowned” by Kerry Kletter is “The Way I Used To Be” by Amber Smith. The novel is not based on abuse in any way, but rather triggers sexual abuse, and the way the main character overcame it, much like Cassie. Parents make mistakes, and although nothing justifies such actions as abuse, yet those are reasons. Most people have no idea on the ways to overcoming fears or insecurities, they deal with them the way the learnt from their parents or the way they deem