Lori: Exploring Trauma, Identity, and Discrimination in Literature

This essay provides a literary analysis of the short story "Lori," focusing on the protagonist's experiences with childhood trauma, identity formation, and racial discrimination. The narrative delves into Lori's memories of her foster care, highlighting the impact of the '60s scoop and the lasting effects of racial prejudice. The essay examines the use of language, specifically the term 'schvartze,' and its role in shaping Lori's sense of self and belonging. It explores the psychological consequences of her experiences, including the struggle between her internal and external identities, and the lasting impact of her childhood trauma. The analysis also considers the themes of social upbringing, discrimination, and the complexities of memory and identity. The essay explores the protagonist's internal conflicts and the lasting effects of childhood experiences, offering a critical perspective on the themes of trauma, identity, and racial discrimination.

Running Head: LORI
Lori
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Carol Daniel, who was born in the Regina had later turned out to be the touring artist
in Saskculture. A semi-autobiographical note under the name of ‘Bear skin diary’. Lori had
been taken from the sixties scoop. The literary piece is primarily concerned with the
disposition of the character who is caught in their own world. Her world is preoccupied by
that of the guilt and angst. It came to her feeling that death would result in a consideration of
her disposition.
The literary piece can be considered as a critique of the growing up of the individual
and the implication of the same on the disposition of the individual. While commenting upon
the nature of the foster women who had taken care for her, Lori went on to say that her decay
was not a result of her old age but the ideas of her that were venomous in nature. Her
disposition has been described as one who is used to separate the young vibrant and tender
mind from their root and put them into a fathomable condition where they had to struggle a
lot with the tenderness of their mind. The same had happened with Lori, the protagonists and
the death of the foster mother had assisted in bringing back the terrible memories that had
been suppressed by her in the course of the time (Daniel; 343).
The narrative is entirely about the return of the subconscious memory to the realm of
consciousness and the stuffs that it had brought along with it. The putting down of the smoke
had brought back the memory that the she would have been thrashed or slapped if she did not
obey the words of her foster mother on an immediate basis. The foster mother has assisted in
imbibing in her the insecurities and prejudices and the feeling that she did not look beautiful
but ugly because of her skin color. The narrative is a portray of then child hood trauma and
the grave impression that the attributes of the people from the surrounding casts upon it.
Lori recollects the day when she used earnestly wish that she is adopted by her family,
the one she used to consider her own. However, standing at the time of the narrative she had

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consciously pushed that memory back to the remote corner of her mind as she was afraid to
return to them effectively. From the recollection of the childhood memory, it has become
apparent that the reason behind her not being adopted in her foster family was deep rooted in
the racial discrimination and the prejudices that lie in the fact because of her racial identity.
The identity of the black people has been rooted in the idea that the black people are un
ethical and immoral in its attribute.
She had continuously referred to as ‘schvartze’ the meaning of which was not clear to
her for a long time. Every time she had been referred to by the name there has been arousal of
laughter in the locality. Whenever asked about the meaning of the name she had been
answered with the fact that it means little ones. The answer had been elucidated to her when
she was in university. The term refers to the fact that it is a German concept of raising a child
in a way that it damages the development of a child in an emotional way. This form of child
care only happens only when the parents are inflicted with the belief that the soul of the child
is infected by the attributes of the evil.
In the modern sense of the term, it has been referred to as the form of the traditional
parental care that has turned out to be repressive and harmful.
When she was little, Lori once asked, “What does Chvartze mean?”
Coming in terms with the term had allowed Lori to realize how the terms have been used by
her foster mother to assault and abuse her, either consciously and unconsciously. The term
that has been used as a slang has been deep rooted in the racial understanding of the cast. She
had always been inflicted with the feeling that she is inferior and should be ashamed of her
disposal. The English translation of the childhood term that used to traumatize her, the
schvartze has been converted to its English counterpart nigger. “Not every memory is laced

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with vinegar”. The untold connotation of the term included the racial assumption and the
derogatory remarks that accompanied the term in its way (Daniel; 345).
The regressive and the abusive memory of her childhood damage her soul beyond
repair and evoke the question that whether all form of parent ship happens in the same way.
Though the abusive childhood mememoroies have faded over the year still they can be heard
to echo and resonate on kits way as they keep on returning to her occasionally. She has been
hit by the dilemma that if she visits the family in her funeral and if she is countered with the
same term again after so many years. She is struck by the feeling that there are two part a
person’s disposition, one part that is benevolent and the other part that is on a continuous
fight with the extreme force outside. The dilemma of the Lori’s disposition lies with the
presumption that we tend to feed the part of us who is strongest (Daniel; 346).
The narrative is about the dilemma that lies in the psyche of the person that is
prevalent. The conflict is between the internal and the external attribute. The discrimination
of a person is rooted in the assumption that the people are racially degrading and deserve not
be treated like human beings. The impact of the assumption has been seen in the trauma that
it had caused in the psyche of the children and the long drawn impact that it had created in
their growing up. The critique is of the social upbringing and the deep impact of the
discrimination on their psyche.

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Works Cited
Daniel, C. Lori. Regina Beach: Creep-Chipewyan (1963).