In the absence of human companionship, children are exposed to all kinds of trauma and repression which ultimately leads them to face reality in harmful ways. It is crucial, especially in the teenage years, that children experience a warm and loving home so they can manage emotional connections in the future. Imagine not having your mother in your childhood as much as you would have liked. He may be there physically but not mentally, therefore not showing any emotional support. You're not sure why he's never around, all you feel is the absence of his presence. It might seem a little uncomfortable and tragic to say the least. Having both parents during childhood is the key to growing up without childhood repression and trauma. As a society, we often believe that a mother's influence on daughters and a father's influence on sons is sufficient because it provides masculinity and femininity to each child. However, socially and historically, a son actually needs the same amount of exposure and influence from his mother as a daughter does. The absence of a mother for a child can be just as harmful to his future as the absence of his father would be. The book Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood was published in 2003, however the futuristic feel of the book suggests that it is set in a realm that has yet to be seen. The plot begins with Snowman living in a post-apocalyptic world populated by genetically modified humanoids called Crackers. Although it seems that Snowman managed to survive such a catastrophe, he is exposed to extreme loneliness. Throughout Snowman's daily existence, we learn about his childhood through his flashbacks. As a child his name was Jimmy which eventually changed to Snowman. His dysfunctional family made him internalize the trauma he faced due to his parents' constant fighting, thus leading to his repressed emotions. Because of this deep attachment to his childhood, he considers himself a victim of his past. Jimmy seeks closure from his lack of a strong relationship with his mother by indulging in his sex addiction and violence. In his science fiction novel, Atwood explores the dynamics of the state of human relationships, extinction and evolution, corporate power and commodification, and much more. The repression of his mother's absence during his childhood pushes Jimmy to fill the void by indulging in his porn addiction and forming fragile relationships with others. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay In Atwood's novel Oryx and Crake, readers follow Jimmy throughout his life. Jimmy was raised by a very neglectful father who was too busy with work and never found time for him and by a mother who was not mentally stable. Jimmy was not supervised at all and this becomes evident when he burns his hair. This act would have upset most parents, but luckily for Jimmy it only made his mother and father fight. Atwood writes: “Once the fight began, Jimmy was relieved, because he already knew that he would not be punished. All he had to do was say nothing and soon they would forget why they started fighting” (Atwood 16). This quote describes the commonality of arguments between Jimmy's parents and his immunity to them. The arguments happened so often that the reason for the argument was forgotten. This is just one of the many borderline abusive tendencies exhibited by Jimmy's parents. During Jimmy's early years, bothJimmy's parents worked a lot. However, as he began to grow up, his mother stayed home more often. Jimmy's mother tries to make him believe that she stopped working to spend more time with him, however Jimmy does not believe this to be true because she is often irritated with him and seems disinterested. Jimmy's mother is constantly irritated by the world and forgets to show affection towards her son. In a study by Brigid Schulte, she says that these tendencies are displayed when parents are depressed or suffer from substance abuse—coincidentally, Jimmy's mother does both. At one point in Jimmy's life, he had a nanny named Dolores who he greatly admired for the affection she felt towards her. She made him feel like he was her son, however, he left when Jimmy's mother returned home, putting Jimmy back in his unhealthy situation. It wasn't long before Jimmy was a loving and supportive influence and as he missed his family he began to think about what he might be like as a mother. Jimmy falsely described his relationship with his mother as “china” because of her effort to be a “real” mother to him. Occasionally, "she was carefully dressed, her lipsticked smile echoed the jelly smile on the sandwich, and she was all sparkling attention, for him and his silly stories." The Uncanny by psychologist Sigmund Freud states that childhood memories and experiences influence how they express themselves in adulthood. The Uncanny primarily examines the connections between childhood development and artistic expression, the consequences of emotional repression, and the mechanisms for saving children from excessive knowledge that may affect them later. Freud's theory suggests that anxiety arises from repressed impulses, concluding: "Every emotional affect transformed by repression into morbid anxiety", therefore, "for such cases of anxiety there must exist a class in which it can be shown that anxiety it comes from something repressed that recurs." . Anxiety is likely to occur when you notice your impulse and try to suppress it. Freud believes that what happens in a disturbing way happens when something that has been repressed reveals itself, often, during everyday life. As for Jimmy's life during the transition to college, we see how his unstable environment at home has affected him so far. As Jimmy tries to repress his emotions and memories of childhood, this only makes things worse, forcing him to "Roll a few joints and smoke while watching executions and porn" (Atwood 196). Jimmy clearly becomes much more rebellious during his teenage years. At a young age, Jimmy becomes addicted to obscene content on the Internet such as executions, porn, and animal cruelty. His relationship with the woman quickly became clouded because he didn't have the foundation of what a healthy relationship looked like. During her college years, she had very few female friends, and the ones she did have were treated rather horribly. Rebellious behavior that prevents you from maintaining meaningful and stable relationships is a clear indicator of a neglectful upbringing. We can see the effect it has on Jimmy's life as he “no longer thought of women as friends: now they were lovers. They were all married or equivalent, looking for an opportunity to sneak up on their husbands... to prove they were still young or otherwise get revenge. Or they were hurt and wanted consolation." Jimmy's uncaring parents are a perfect way to rationalize his angry behavior. A study conducted by the Center for Disease Control found that one in four children experience parental abuse which has “an adverse effect on the ability of both men and women to establish and maintain healthy intimate relationships in.