Role of Holding Environment in Facilitating the Maturation of Adolescents with Traumatic Childhood Experiences: A Case Study of Kambili Achike of Purple Hibiscus and Liesel Meminger of The Book Thief

Abstract

The objective of the paper is to investigate the role of holding environment in the maturation of adolescents with traumatic childhood experiences. The subjects of the study are Kambili Achike of Purple Hibiscus (2007) and Liesel Meminger of The Book Thief (2005). They belong to different historical timelines and socio-cultural backgrounds, but have the common feature of undergoing painful journey of trauma-recovery. In the process, both are facilitated, albeit in different ways, by their holding environment. Methodology involves a close reading of the two texts from the focal point of the Winnicottian concepts of ‘Holding Environment’ and Good Enough Mother’, and Bowlby’s idea of ‘Secure Base’. The study has found that compassionate parenting, good-enough mothering, integrity in value system, promotion of self-determination and self-esteem, availability of role-models, peers and transitional objects fare as common elements in both the protagonists’ journey from trauma recovery to healthy