In Chapters 15-17 of In Search of April Raintree by Beatrice Mosionier, the protagonist April Raintree is forced to face her lifetime filled with traumatic experiences.

Below are my connections for these chapters:

Text to Self

In Search of April Raintree is challenging to read because of its close relationship to reality. When reading April Raintree I was reminded of many hardships that I have faced in my life and the hardships that those I love have faced as well.

I drew this picture to represent what April is going through in the final chapters of novel. The purple squiggles are to represent Cheryl’s suicide, the red squiggles are to represent when April was raped, and the yellow squiggles are to represent her traumatic childhood. When we experience trauma, those experiences stay with us and continue to cause us pain. Trauma also shapes individuals because of its significant impact.

Text to Text

The beginning of a series of traumatic events for April and Cheryl Raintree begin with their parents as their parents are residential school survivors. According to the “Neurodevelopment Reading” provided to ECE 200 by Dr. Christine Massing, trauma has generational effects “Trauma not only influences the development of those who experience it, but also has been found to have residual effects passed from generation to generation. When traumatic events or historic oppression are not adequately addressed, it can have long-term implications for future generations.” In the novel, April and Cheryl are exposed to trauma from the moment of conception simply because their parents experienced horrific events themselves. Throughout the novel, April and Cheryl are not given the chance to address the existence of this trauma which increases their stress.

The reading also states, “If parents experience abuse or other forms of trauma in childhood, for example, they may find it difficult to form secure, healthy attachments with their own children,” this circumstance is true for Cheryl. Due to the complex trauma Cheryl experienced as a child and in her adult life, she found it difficult to form a secure attachment with her son. This made her believe that she was not worthy of her son. Thankfully, for April knowing Cheryl’s son helps her heal from her own trauma because it allows her to address the existence of Cheryl and Cheryl’s death.

Text to Others

After discussing with others about their connections to the final chapters of In Search of April Raintree, I found that once again everyone interpreted the story differently because of the individualism among us.

Depending on our individual circumstances we interpreted the final chapters of the novel differently. Where I chose to focus on the effects of the trauma that April and Cheryl faced, others chose to focus on the sociocultural impacts that led to the trauma April and Cheryl faced.