It is almost universally acknowledged that what we experience as young children continues to affect us as we grow up. Whether stemming from familial problems, societal issues, or global disasters, the climate of our childhood always remains in our subconscious mind. This is especially true in the Mediterranean, where refugee crises and social justice issues have permeated the narrative of the region for generations. The dark, hopeless sensibilities of the implied authors in Morning Sea by Margaret Mazzantini and Troubling Love by Elena Ferrante convey the intended meaning that childhood trauma affects one’s identity far into adulthood.
In Morning Sea the effects of childhood trauma are conveyed through an overarching sense of loss from the implied author. We first see this through Farid and his mother Jamila as they begin to lose their home. As Farid is very young, he does not fully grasp the gravity of the situation and Jamila tries to shield him from the harsh reality. Mazzantini writes, “He doesn’t mind leaving the past. He’s a child. He’s too young to have any real sense of time. What he knows and what awaits him are all in the same hand” (Mazzantini loc. 379). His mother, on the other hand, understands what is happening. The audience feels a sense of loss as they witness the Farid’s youthful naivety contrasted against a horrible situation. While Farid does not fully understand the significance of leaving his life behind yet, the fact that the audience does contributes to the story’s grave tone. On the other hand, through Angelina’s story we see the
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long-term costs of forced migration as Angelina is an older woman who experienced this in her youth. She was slightly older than Farid when she left Libya, able to understand that “She wouldn’t see things like this again. The sea beyond the medina, the little mermaid fountain, the covered market, the Gaby cinema” (Mazzantini loc. 600). Through her memory, the audience understands what could have been – if she had stayed, Angelina’s life would look drastically different. Because the audience can see a drastic shift in Angelina’s life from Libya to Italy, they feel this sense of loss from the implied author as Angelina realizes and reflects on the fact that her hopes and dreams in one place will never come to fruition. She will never be able to find out what could have happened if she stayed – would she have married Ali? The move to Italy means that Angelina will spend the rest of her life speculating on what could have been. She was forced to create a new life for herself as the people she left behind had to move on without her. The emotions coming from the implied author conveys to the audience that through leaving home, a part of you is lost forever.
While there is a noticeable sense of loss throughout Troubling Love (the narrative surrounds the loss of Delia’s mother Amalia), more importantly there is a feeling of unstoppable continuation. The novel conveys both the continuation of generations of Italian women being abused by the men in their lives as well as the continuation of a cultural mindset of passivity towards this issue. Over and over again in the novel we see this culture of abuse, from men touching women on public transportation to Delia’s father beating Amalia. The repetition of these events causes the audience as well as the characters within the story to feel as if there is no escape or solution. These horrific actions happened to Delia, happened to Amalia, and happened to countless other nameless women throughout the novel. The sensibility of the implied author
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reflects the collective experience of Italian women across generations. Specifically, we see this in the relationship between Delia and Amalia. Delia witnessed the abuse of her mother from a young age and has experienced problems herself because of this. She told lies as a child and seems unable to truly engage with the world around her as an adult. Delia appears unable to be in normal physical relationships with men. The audience cannot blame her for this, given the numerous negative depictions of men in the novel, yet her intimacy problems stems in part from her childhood experiences. Ferrante writes, “I didn’t react…I knew I could keep at bay the impression of looming violence only if the speed of our movements seemed chosen by me” (Ferrante 89). In her encounter with Polledro in the hotel room, Delia exemplifies her lack of agency throughout the novel. She is passive, not reacting to his actions and recounting a similar experience from her childhood. Rather than do something to stop Polledro, she mirrors the actions of the women in her life and does nothing. Rather than employ agency to change the narrative of gender roles in Italian society, she waits the situation out. This scene reinforces the sensibility of a continuation of an unstoppable history.
Additionally, the implied author’s negative relationship to the setting contributes to Mazzantini and Ferrante’s intended meanings in both novels. Almost all the characters in the novels are at odds with the setting. For Delia, she has to travel from Rome back to Naples, a place she associates with intense, traumatic memories. For Farid and Jamila, their desert home begins to symbolize hopelessness and death. Before they leave, Farid’s father dies, and war and violence are at the forefront of everyone’s minds. As much as his parents try to shelter Farid from this, “Farid knows that war has broken out somewhere…his friends say weapons have arrived from the frontier” (Mazzantini loc. 173). The setting conveys the feeling that Farid’s life
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is about to be uprooted – it cannot survive here. Their home is dying and migration is unavoidable. In Troubling Love, the city of Naples feels gloomy and grey – ironic for a city on the Mediterranean Sea. Similarly, when Jamila and Farid get on the boat to cross the sea, there is a morbid, deathly sensibility. What at first glance may be a beautiful setting for both novels is in reality a dark, ugly one. In Naples, it is as if happiness and human decency have no place in the lives of its citizens. Crime and injustice wait on every street corner. Although Delia grew up here, there is a sense of disconnect and detachment. The city does not feel welcoming. She is alienated from the people and places around her. We especially see this alienation in the case of Angelina, whose negative relationship to her setting stems from her loss of identity in her youth. She never felt fully Libyan, however she also never felt quite Italian. She never chose to leave Tripoli, and therefore has negative feelings towards her Italian identity. Her setting was forced upon her. While Angelina’s son Vito has lived in Italy his whole life, her loss of identity has affected him finding his. A culture of migration, like a culture of abuse, can carry on in the subconscious mind of families and groups for generations.
Across both novels, flashbacks are employed to create an overarching feeling of identity loss and reinforce the impacts of childhood trauma. Specifically, both Angelina’s character and Delia’s character experience flashbacks throughout their respective novels. These flashbacks create a sense of disconnect between the characters we meet in the novel and the memories that they have of themselves. Delia constantly experiences traumatic memories of her father’s abuse of Amalia, from her bleeding over a sink to her father publicly slapping her. Angelina looks back more fondly on her life prior to coming to Italy. However, her memories are still darkened by the association of them with a place she cannot ever truly go back to. Even when she returns to
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Libya in the novel, life there has changed. In her memory, there is a heartbreaking sense of what could have been. No one in either novel ever lives completely in the present – Angelina is stuck in Libya, Delia in Naples, Farid and Jamila in the future. Even Vito is constantly thinking of his familial past. Large portions of both novels do not occur over the same time period, reiterating the idea of how our past traumas never leave us.
With dark sensibilities and tones, the implied authors in Morning Sea and Troubling Love convey the relationship between childhood trauma and identity. Very few glimpses of light and hope shine through Ferrante and Mazzantini’s novels. Through the feelings behind narration, flashbacks, and relationship to place, we are able to see how memory affects the complex characters in these novels far into their lives. Furthermore, Ferrante and Mazzantini allow us to reflect on our relationships with our memories as well as how our own traumas have shaped our lives. Within our own cultures, these novels pose questions surrounding global identity and crises. Whether big or small, the memories and stories that we tell ourselves about our past remain with us long after their occurrence.