Healthy Development

By Linda Jiang

As a closure for myself, I’m going to write a blog about healthy developments in adolescents. Healthy developments refer to children of all abilities to grow up where their social, emotional, and educational needs are met. Having a safe and loving home where adolescents feel comfortable is essential. But what happens when those requirements aren’t fulfilled? Theoretically, they may experience childhood trauma in adulthood and end up on a destructive path. But for the majority, they end up doing just fine on their own. I find this to be the pattern for a majority of the characters in the novels so far.

Nonetheless, there are exceptions. When looking at “The Miseducation of Cameron Posts,” “The Lowell Offerings,” and “If I Ever Get Out of Here,” it is without a doubt that the characters are flawed and grew up in an environment that doesn’t fulfill all the criteria of healthy development. Still, in the end, they’ve matured into individuals that their past self would be proud of. On the contrary, Charlotte from the novel “Charlotte Temple” traps herself in a dwindle of chaos that later turns into tragedy. Compare to other characters; I would say that Charlotte’s environment fulfills the criteria for healthy development, so what went wrong?

Charlotte comes from a family of decent backgrounds with two loving parents. They were able to provide her with an abundant of affection, education, and a comfortable life. Charlotte’s social and emotional needs were met at home and in school. But here’s the problem, Charlotte is too sheltered. Charlotte attends an all-girls boarding school, with minimal interactions to the real world. I acknowledge that this was the norm of the time, but is a terrible combo with Charlotte’s Naive, indecisive, and prude personality. Not to mention, she was constantly with Mademoiselle La Rue, a manipulative woman. She strung Charlotte around like a puppet. Hence, meeting Montraville was like opening the door to a new cosmos. Though Charlotte was reluctant at first, she wasn’t able to control her curiosity. As a result, She threw away her old life and left with Montraville to a foreign land. All of these decisions ends up biting her back. The happy ending she hoped for turns into a tragedy. Charlotte’s most significant issue is her social life. Because Charlotte never experienced the harshness of the world, she remains naive and pure. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it doesn’t help when her only friend is quite literally the opposite of her. Moreover, it doesn’t look like Mademoiselle La Rue saw her as a friend. Charlotte was more like a piece of chess that she could control to achieve her goals.

On the contrary, Cameron from “The Miseducation of Cameron Post” grew up in a conservative town with a chaotic household. She was provided with the necessities, but her emotional and social needs were ignored. As a child, Cameron was different from the rest. She didn’t like wearing dresses and playing house. Cameron was a child that many would refer to as a tomboy. Her relatives and neighbors in town thought of it as a phase that she will grow out of. But Cameron knew she was different. Cameron likes girls and was afraid of coming out. She tried to hide who she really was and blamed herself for her parents’ death. To Cameron, taking away her parents was god’s punishment for her sexuality. Things got worse when her guardian became aunt Ruth. Aunt Ruth was different from her parents; she is the epitome of the word feminine and religious. Due to her controlling nature and overzealous religious beliefs, there was constant tension between her and Cameron. This surfaced when Ruth learns of Cameron and Coley’s affair. Cameron was sent into a conversion camp called God’s Promise. The purpose of conversion camps is to break the individual down, so they reform themselves back to “normal.” But in reality, they’re too mentally exhausted to fight back. Like many others, Cameron also had her moment of losing hope in God’s Promise. Briefly, Cameron lost the sparkle in her eyes and was in a slum. Thankfully Jane, Adam, and ironically Lydia stopped Cameron from going any steeper. I was in shock when I read that Lydia was the one that pulled Cameron out of her cage and lifted years of weight off Cameron’s should. Though it was unintentional, Lydia allowed Cameron to realize that her parents’ death was not her fault. The story had a happy ending with Jane, Adam, and Cameron escaping God’s Promise. But what I want to say is that the people that Cameron encounters and surrounds herself with becomes a piece of her. Regardless if it’s Coley, Jane, Irene, Lindsey, Jamie, or Adam, they all represented a turning point in her life. And it was beneficial that she had a group of accepting friends like Jane and Adam, who gave her hope during God’s Promise. The tables may have flipped if Cameron did not have supportive friends. She could’ve ended up like her roommate Erin, believing that she has changed, but she’s drowning herself in lies in reality.

In the end, it all boils down to the surrounding of an adolescent. They could be living a prosperous life with all their wishes granted, but if they surround themselves with toxic individuals, it could be game over.

Work Cited

Danforth, Emily. The Miseducation of Cameron Post. Penguin Books Ltd., 2018.

Rowson, Susanna. Charlotte Temple. Scholarly Pr., 1977.