Have we ever gone through some traumatic events in our lives, and we had a best friend that was like a brother or sister to us to help us get through or over it? This is a question that is asked a lot in real life when we read literature that is filled with traumatic events that the main character goes through as the story goes on. In The Dew Breaker, by Edwidge Danticat a man, Michael was friends with a boy older than him named Romain when he was a kid and living in Haiti during the regime of Jean-Claude Duvalier, and they became like brothers despite their mothers eventually had a falling out. In the play, The Recognition of Sakuntala, by Kalidasa, there were some traumatic events, such as a hermit putting a curse on King Dusyanta that made him forget about his wife, Sakuntala and he pushed her away. When the curse was broken and he remembered what he did, he was taken by grief and sadness.
In some works of literature, the brotherly/sisterly bond that two best friends share in their lives, throughout the book as it goes on, and they become like siblings because they’re tired of being an only child and want to spend time with someone. The two friends are there for one another no matter what they go through, and they can become like siblings despite one being older than the other. A character from The Dew Breaker is proof of this because when he was eight years old, he became friends with an 18-year-old. One thing that brought them together was that they had a handful of things in common.
An example of two friends still being as close as siblings despite their parents having a falling out is this, “Our mothers had a falling-out one day—neither Romain nor I ever able to find out from either of them what it was about—and I stopped visiting Romain’s house with my mother and he stopped coming around to ask my mother’s permission to take me places. Our outings became less frequent, but every once in a while we’d plot to meet somewhere and the proceed to a karate flick, especially if it was a new Bruce Lee.” Danticat, pg. 143, 2004. This quote from the book tells the audience Michael and Romain still had their brotherly bond and still spent time together even though their mothers not getting along anymore. This not only happens in books or movies, but this also happens in real life.
Even though two friends who share a bond, become like siblings and their bond lasts for a certain amount of time as well as have a happy childhood for the most part, sometimes even friends who have a brotherly/sisterly bond drift apart and go their separate ways, but still care about one another. The friends might still care about one another so much on the inside, that they might even name their children after their friends. If people name their children after a friend they were like siblings with, that just proves how much that friend meant to that person. And that best friend who was like a brother/sister to someone will always have a place in said someone’s heart.
As Danticat writes at the end of “Monkey Tails” part of the book, “As for you my son, your myth is this: it’s now past midnight; if you’re born today, on this, the anniversary of the day that everything changed for me, on the day that I became a man, your name will be Romain, after my first true friend.” Danticat, pg. 164, 2004. This quote from the book tells the reader and audience that Michael still cared for Romain years later even after they went their separate ways, he named his son after his best and true friend. And it tells how having a friend who is like a sibling has such an impact on people’s lives.
Another thing that has such an impact in the lives of people in real life and in forms of literature such as books, poems, or movies is the lingering effects of going through traumatic events. It’s not just going through the events themselves that have such an impact on lives but going through the aftermath and the after-effects of it lingering that also impacts people greatly. Traumatic things such as having a huge fight, forgetting someone you love, losing another loved one, etc., going through the aftermath of it and the after-effects of it linger for a certain amount of time has such a powerful impact on the people and that in turn could make people different and change the way they behave in society.
As the newest translation of The Recognition of Sakuntala by W.J. Johnson says, “SAKUNTALA: Yes, I deserve it—I deserve to be called a self-willed wanton, since I put my trust in the Puru dynasty, and gave myself to a man with honey in his mouth but poison in his heart!” Johnson, pg. 66, 2008. This quote from the book that I have tells the audience and reader that Sakuntala is going through such a traumatic experience because she is taken over by grief, sadness, and heartbreak because her husband’s memory of her being his wife and being pregnant with his child has been erased from his mind because of a curse. Because of going through a traumatic experience like this, it will linger in her mind for a certain amount of time before she eventually moves on and forgets about it.
When one goes through the traumatic experience of a someone forgetting about a loved one, like how King Dusyanta forgot about marrying Sunkuntala, the one who forgot everything also suffers from trauma when they finally remember everything of what they did when that loved one that tried to get them to remember everything. When the memories of pushing a husband or wife away when they tried to get the other to remember and the husband or wife also remembers what they did, the after-effects of that will linger for a certain amount of time before they get the drive to find said loved one and attempt to reconnect with them. If they reconnect and the one who forgot everything is forgiven, they will live a happy life together.
W.J. Johnson says in his translation of the play, “KING: [looking at the ring]. I grieve for its expulsion from heaven: Ring, if your reward is anything to go by your good deeds are as evanescent as mine, for though you have earned a place on her matchless, translucent fingers, you lacked the merit to stick there and you fell.” Johnson, pg. 78, 2008. This quote from Johnson’s translation of the play tells the audience that King Dusyanta is has gotten back his memories of Sakuntala and her being pregnant with his child, and he remembers that he pushed her away when she tried in vain to get him to remember everything they went through together. This also says that the both of them went through such a traumatic experience when the curse went into effect and when it was broken, they eventually got back together.
Sakuntala and King Dusyanta are not the only people that go through traumatic experiences and Michael from “Monkey Tails” in The Dew Breaker is not the only person that has become a friend with a person older than him, these things have happened in other forms of literature and in real life all over the globe over the course of human history. Becoming like a sibling with someone older or younger than me is something that happened to me. When I was a high school kid, I became like brothers with a student who was two years younger than me, and we still talk every once in a while. And I went through many traumatic experiences growing up because I was bullied a lot, but I had friends that made my day better when I was going through the after-effects.
This is what going through traumatic experiences, such as being bullied on a daily basis, a loved one forgetting about you, getting a devastating injury, a loved one passing away, etc., and we go through the after-effects of that traumatic event does to the human mind. It will have such a negative impact on the way people behave in society and their attitude will change drastically. How people having a friend that is like a sibling to them will affect them is that becoming like a brother or sister with a friend will help people with going through the after-effects of said traumatic experience/event, that friend will help people get over what they went through and eventually move on. Therefore, having a friend that we bond with in a brotherly/sisterly way will affect the lives of those who have such bad days and make those days better, and if those friends who are like siblings grow up together, they will have happy childhoods.
Works cited
Danticat, Edwidge. (2004). The Dew Breaker, New York: Vintage Books
Kalidasa (author), Johnson, W.J. (translator), (2008). The Recognition of Sakuntala, Oxford, England, Oxford World’s Classics
Sprockets and Springes 