Childhood Trauma in the MaddAddam TrilogySay no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essayMemories of youth and adolescence are an integral part of a person's maturation. The consequences of a traumatic childhood can affect children throughout their lives, as those who fail to cope with their damage subsequently fail to truly move on. The consequences of a negative adolescent experience are evident in Margaret Atwood's MaddAddam trilogy, through the many characters who lose their innocence at a young age. Due to their teenage experiences, these characters grow up with many defining characteristics that date back to their early years. Through the characters Jimmy, Ren, and Blackbeard, Atwood demonstrates how the quality of a person's childhood ultimately affects their mental development into adulthood. In Atwood's debut novel, Oryx and Crake, the protagonist Jimmy suffers an unhappy childhood of neglect and contempt and, as a result, finds himself forever unhappy as an adult. Although perhaps the most obvious moment of abandonment in his childhood is when Jimmy's mother leaves him, taking with her his best friend Killer, a genetically modified "rakunk", Jimmy's life before the abandonment of his mother is still full of neglect. As he grows up, he is unable to gain the love of both his parents – a father unable to connect with his mediocre son and a mother who is constantly withdrawn and emotionally unstable. This neglect becomes most evident during Jimmy's birthdays, when his parents routinely forgot about him and his father "simply sent him an electronic birthday card – the standard OrganInc model" (Oryx 50). Jimmy's lack of emotional connection to his parents ultimately harms his ability to form relationships with others as an adult. While Jimmy seeks physical satisfaction from his many sexual partners, he never feels emotionally invested with his lovers. This inability to form deep, lasting relationships with others is ultimately a reflection of his poor relationships with his parents. While Jimmy's unhappy childhood results in an inability to form meaningful relationships, Ren's unstable childhood in Atwood's Year of the Flood results in a lack of self. value and emotional security. Ren's childhood is filled with instability. As his self-centered mother, Lucerne, forces them to move repeatedly for her personal pursuits, Ren's sense of security and comfort diminishes and any source of coherence and peace in his life disappears. Additionally, throughout his childhood, Ren does not have a stable father figure; she is forced to distance herself from her biological father Frank, and her relationship with her surrogate father figure Zeb is unreliable and ultimately fails when Lucerne decides to uproot their lives again. This lack of stability during childhood translates into a lack of emotional well-being later in life. As an adult, Ren is insecure and naive; she constantly seeks validation of her self-worth, as evidenced by her role at Scales and Tails, a place in which she feels assured that her value is not "disposable" but rather useful - "talent" (Year 282). This insecurity and desperation for validation stems from her lack of stability as a teenager and ultimately stunts her emotional maturity as an adult. Unlike Ren and Jimmy, the character of Blackbeard in Atwood's MaddAddam demonstrates.