What better thing to think about on the day after Festivus, in the hours before Hanukkah begins, and on Christmas Eve Day–all holidays that many people spend with family–than childhood emotional wounds. Often inflicted by family, of course. They can be terrible for kids and the adults they become. But for crime writers, they are gifts bundled in tissue paper and boxed with ribbons and bows, waiting to be unwrapped.
Do you enjoy reading or watching How The Grinch Stole Christmas?
There wouldn't be much to the story if the Grinch weren't a terrible being. He wouldn't sneak into the homes of the Whovians and steal their tinsel, toys, and trees if something hadn't happened to him to cause him to be so terrible. He wouldn't abuse his poor dog Max and tell little Cindy-Lou Who that he was Santa Claus if he didn't have an emotional wound driving him. Yes, yes, I know. Some have said that maybe he is so grinchy because his shoes are too tight or because his heart is two sizes too small. But how did his heart come to be so small?
I bet back in his childhood someone was mean to him. Maybe other kids. Maybe someone in his family. Maybe both. Bad for the Grinch and bad for the Whovians and bad for dear old Max, but for readers of the Dr. Seuss classic, the Grinch's emotional wound is pure gold. It drives the Grinch's actions and it gives him room to grow. A character arc in a half hour? Oh, yes, dear reader. The Grinch proves it can be done. Short story authors, take note.
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Festivus pole It isn't much, but then again, neither is Festivus. © Matthew Keefe |
The Seinfeld episode “The Strike” also shows how childhood emotional wounds can be wonderful entertainment fodder. This is the episode about Festivus. If young George Costanza had not been forced each December 23rd to listen to his father detail his grievances, if George had not been raised in a home without a Christmas tree but with a tinsel-less aluminum pole–tinsel is distracting, you know–if George had not had to participate in the Feats of Strength each year, he might not have grown up to be a man who claims to make donations to a fake charity he created in order to get out of giving Christmas gifts.
Sure, you may be thinking, even without Festivus, George would have been doomed to become an extremely flawed adult because he grew up with Frank and Estelle as his parents. But that just shows the depth of his emotional wounds. Thanks to the suffering he experienced as a child–and yes, as an adult–TV viewers got to enjoy nine years of a complex, flawed character who drove many amusing storylines, even the ones that ultimately were about nothing. And viewers still can enjoy them, thanks to the wonders of syndication.
One of my stories that was published this year involves a man, Ethan, who suffered childhood emotional wounds at the hands of his father, and like with the Grinch and George Costanza, those wounds plague him to this day. Ethan can practically hear his father whispering in his ear whenever he doesn't measure up to some ingrained standard. Then he seeks refuge in his favorite comfort food. When that coping mechanism becomes unavailable, adult Ethan acts out. His childhood emotional wounds drive the man and thus the action in the story. Want to know more? You can read this story, “A Matter of Trust,” on my website by clicking here. It isn't funny like many of my stories, but I hope readers find it compelling.
Happy holidays and happy new year to you all. May you reach January without any new emotional wounds. The ones you writers have are likely more than enough.
Barb - "A Matter of Trust" is great! I've never had an addiction to food, but I was a slave to cigarettes for 40 years, and you nailed addiction, and how an addict can believe ALL their behavior is perfectly normal. (Of course, I'm also the person who read the "20 steps to tell if you have a problem with alcohol" - I;ve had a lot of alcoholics in my life - and said, if you change "alcohol" to "reading", I'm there.)
ReplyDeleteThank you, Eve. I'm so glad you enjoyed the story. I had a brief addiction to a certain low-carb ice cream a few years ago. I swear they must add something to it because I was craving it--and eating it--every two hours, no exaggeration. The fear I would run out was real. In the end, I had to go cold turkey. I also understand your book addiction. My sister once said that I read too much, as if there could be such a thing.
DeleteGood column today, Barb! One that tallies with a class I do in my college courses, on 'Making your villain human' - that is, making him human, with flaws, but with reasons for those flaws. Nothing is as boring as perfection, and a close second in the boring stakes, is a villain or killer who is all evil. I'll look forward to reading A Matter of Trust - thanks for the early Christmas present!
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome, Mel. It is always good for the reader to understand why the bad guy is bad. The reader can still hate him for what he does, but maybe there will be some empathy too for why he became such a bad guy. Anyway, merry Christmas!
DeleteInteresting stuff about how past wound influence character development.
ReplyDeleteIn last Sunday's Christmas puzzle, the essay speculated about grumps with green skin– Grinch, the Hulk, the Wicked Witch of the North. Why wouldn't they feel grouchy being judged by the color of their skin?
ReplyDeleteBut a Festivus pole seems wire-mother to me. Fortunately, we were blest with a Christmas cum Chanukah rich with family tradition and projects rather than money. Innovative decorations and fireplace stockings were mostly homemade. Every year my mother collected another in a string of little ornaments for each of us kids, and for nearly 50 years, my sentimental father gave my mother a gift in the same box he'd saved from before their wedding. The gift was the romance of the box.
But as you say, wounds that come early may never heal. I can't get over a young mother who refused to show affection to her baby boy. She claimed attention and affection made a boy weak, while slaps and silences toughened him up. The unloved infant becomes the much hated monster. Jesus, talk about a wire mother!
Happy Chanukah and merry Christmas.
I'm not really into Xmas. My daughter's birthday is Dec. 30, because of my bad planning, & when she was little I celebrated the season more. My parents did not permit us to believe in Santa Claus or even to hear stories about him. They were extremely strict for no particular reason. Did my upbringing make me a terrible person? You tell me. I've never even had detention or been arrested & everyone else in my family of origin has. Anyway, with all that said ... Feliz Navidad everyone!
DeleteI’m a teacher-mom who’s had the misfortune—um, opportunity, to watch a lot of the longer Grinch adaptations, and the unkindness shown to the grinch as a child is a common theme…it’s easy to see how those emotional wounds turned him into an awful individual. I agree, it’s fun as a writer to explore how emotional trauma early in life shape our villains. We hope to see them grow, like the Grinch or Scrooge, but for crime writers it’s more fun when they don’t! I enjoyed “A Matter of Trust” a lot when I read it earlier this year!
ReplyDeleteSeveral SleuthSayers over the past 2-3 weeks have mentioned Grinch and suggested he was shaped as a child. I read recently that cities have made sitting illegal in some areas and are criminalising sleeping in public. We are becoming a nation of unkindness. I can't imagine the situation will improve in the next four years.
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