The Role of Dark Pasts on the Development of an Individual Mikaela Lahn 12th Grade

It is very common in literature, both in the past and modern-day, for characters to have dark backgrounds. Many authors choose this approach because it creates an approachable character with whom the reader can identify, and provides the reader with an admirable protagonist. This darkness is usually the result of one or many traumatizing events, such as abuse. Abuse may come in multiple forms, including emotional and physical. In Fall On Your Knees, Ann-Marie MacDonald explores some main types of abuse within the family. Similarly, in Michael Thomas’ novel Man Gone Down, the same types of abuse consume the narrator’s past, and in some cases, his present. The three types of abuse that both novels portray are physical, mental and even racial. Not only do the characters have dark pasts, but it is these moments and events in their history that develop the individuals and determine the persons that they become.

Physical abuse can cause serious damage to an individual that may have long-lasting effects; such abuse within families in Fall on Your Knees is very prominent, and is seen again and again as the generations pass. Most of the abuse comes from James, who focuses his anger in large part on his wife, Materia. Once they settle...