Growing up with a broken family and success in Housekeeping - Essay Example

 How growing up with a broken family doesn't mean you can't be successful. There is a general and at times valid viewpoint that children suffering through intense childhood trauma because of broken family could be "damaged" as a person in their adult years. Although, it is true in certain situations, it is not the norm because many children despite broken family and the related trauma have emerged successful in their adulthood. Although, sizable or minimum number of individuals as a child could have faced obstacles as well as hardships, that does not mean or automatically will result in problems or traumas throughout their lifetime. When viewed from another perspective, just the opposite could be a more valid perspective because intense hardships and other traumas during childhood are actually often major contributors to one's success in adulthood. Instead of getting depressed and bogged down, children with tough childhood due to their personal determination and confidence, as well as with the support of others have achieved optimal success. This perspective of childhood trauma due to broken families got reflected in fictional work as well, like in Housekeeping, the award winning debut novel by Marilynne Robinson. The protagonist and the narrator of the novel, Ruth with her sister Lucille faces loss, abandonment and insecurity throughout their childhood and that continued into her adolescence as well, without any chance of success. However, in contrast to their characters, this paper will deal with the lives of two personalities who had actually grown up in a broken family and despite that achieved optimal success. Michael Oher Oher came from a broken home. His estranged father Michael Jerome was a frequent prisoner and was murdered, while Oher was in high school. His mother Denise was a drug addict who abandoned him. Here it is inevitable to remember Ruth from ‘Housekeeping’ whose father deserts the family, leaving Ruth, her sister Lucille, and their mother Helen to fend for themselves, while shortly her mother Helen too commits suicide abandoning her. (Robinson) In this kind of a similar situation Oher was in and out of foster homes and frequently homeless. He also performed badly in academics as well, attending around 11 different schools during his first nine years as a student more like Lucille who was a truant frequently. (“Michael Oher”). Turing point came as he touched 17, when he was finally taken in by Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy who became his legal guardians. After that he developed great interest towards football which made him excel in it. “He quickly became a top football prospect in the state of Tennessee, which led to multiple scholarship offers from Division 1 schools.” (“Michael Oher”). Oher experienced great success in the year 2004, as he became a well-known football player, receiving “first team All-America honors from ‘USA Today’ and was given the opportunity to play in the U.S. Army All-America Bowl.” (“Michael Oher”). His success story continued and by 2013, Oher helped his team Ravens all the way to Super Bowl XLVII held in New Orleans, Louisiana, emerging victorious in the championship final. After his impressive win he uttered, “It's true that we can't help the circumstances we're born into and some of us start out in a much tougher place than other people. But just because we started there doesn't mean we have to end there.” (“Michael Oher”). This statement of Ohr validates the fact that growing up with a broken family need not be an obstacle in one’s path to success. Tom Cruise - Hollywood's Leading Man Thomas Cruise Mapother IV, better known as Tom Cruise and one of the biggest movie celebrities of the world, is also from a broken family background. Cruise's mother Mary was a schoolteacher, and his father Thomas Mapother was an electrical engineer. When he was a child, his family used to travel around a lot to accommodate his father's career. Then, when his parents divorced when he was just 11, they further moved around and that impacted his early life further. To further add to those woes was Cruise had dyslexia due to which could not perform well in academics. Although, he excelled in athletics particularly wrestling, a severe knee injury put hold on that avenue as well. Thus, starting from broken family to failure in academics and sports, Cruise had a tough childhood. “Tom Cruise comes from a pretty broken family and his biography portrays him as a sad little boy with an unhappy childhood who made himself one of the most influential man in the world by his own will, effort and skill.” (“Top 5 Tom Cruise falls”). As said above all Obstacles and hardships during the childhood do not always lead to failure, and the same became true in the life of Tom Cruise. When he was 16, he became close to his teacher on the same lines as Lucille, Ruth’s sister who decided one day to go and live with one of the school’s spinsterish teachers due to the support she received. (Robinson). Tom Cruise’s teacher supported and encouraged him to exhibit his talent for performing on stage, singing and dancing, and him participate in the school's production of the musical ‘Guys and Dolls’. “After Cruise won the lead of the play, he found himself surprisingly at home on the stage, and a career was born.” (“Tom Cruise”). After that initial breakthrough, Cruise had big dreams about wanting to have a successful acting career. Thus, “he left school and moved to New York, struggling through audition after audition before landing an appearance in 1981's Endless Love, starring Brooke Shields.” (“Tom Cruise”). Soon he became a recognizable actor and tremendous success followed him in all his endeavors. Tom Cruise’s life evidently proves it is one’s attitude which determines their altitude, and so the past including broken families cannot be a personal “handicap”, and nothing to do with one’s success in life. Conclusion From the above analysis of the two personalities in relation with the novel, Housekeeping that there is nothing to pity about growing up in a broken family and it does not mean one cannot be successful. If one has the determination and the will to fight during those bad times, and aptly use the support received from others, then he/she can be successful. Thus, anyone with childhood trauma due to broken families should get past their “old stuff” and fire themselves up, because as the saying goes a successful individual is one who will be able to lay a strong foundation with the “bricks”, which have been thrown at him/her. Works cited “Michael Oher.” Biography.com, n. d. Web. 9 Dec 2013. Robinson, Marilynne. Housekeeping. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1980. “Tom Cruise.” Biography.com, n. d. Web. 9 Dec 2013. “Top 5 Tom Cruise falls.” Zero Woes, n. d. Web. 9 Dec 2013. http://zerowoes.com/articles/top-5-tom-cruise-fails/ Read More