Tales of heroes and villains: trauma recovery in young adult literature

Though trauma in children's literature has been thoroughly explored by various scholars, little has been written about the recovery process for victims of abuse. In considering the groundbreaking work of trauma specialist Judith Herman, this paper explores the ways in which recovery from traumatic sexual abuse is handled in realistic young adult novels. The paper finds that while authors often depict immediate trauma accurately, they do not fully explore the healing process of their characters. This disregard for the healing process can be pinpointed to one underlying cause: the influence of fairy tales on young adult texts. A study of Little Red Cap and Snow White by the Brothers Grimm examines the overlapping theme of female silencing patriarchal control found in both fairy tales and realist young adult novels of sexual abuse.