“The Leavers” is written by Lisa Ko and is a novel portraying the life of a young boy, Deming, as he struggles with deportation as his Chinse Immigrant mother, Polly Guo, abandons him in the United States. This novel expands on his journey to overcome this in relation to his surroundings and limits. His mother insisted they move together and is not taking no for an answer. The next day he is awakened to the disappearance of his mother without any notice or communication. He is left to fend for himself and is left with the blame his mother placed upon him. He is left with his siblings and friends, as well as the confusion of why his mother left him introducing the upsetting truth and awakening of his life.
This course discusses the topic of negotiating identities, where change in one’s life can alter one’s identity. The article, “Lost in Transition,” expands on the Social Identity Model of Identity Change where new surroundings and change requires vulnerability where there must be recovery, as well as discovery. When one is exposed to change, they must rely on themselves and what they know to adapt. It provokes a sense of “starting over,” and having to enforce new roles and establishment. Interactions must be placed as well as a sense of embeddedness, where one’s mental health is severely impacted. With change there may be an association of introduction as well as abandonment. Abandonment introduces trauma, which elicits behavioral change. According to the article on “Parent Abandonment: A Unique Form of Loss and Narcissistic Injury,” there is a sense of hope affiliated with abandonment as one may fantasize on reunion. This causes one to distort reality, which further impacts their development.
In this novel a boy’s life changes where his mother leaves him in the United States where he is introduced to a new awakening in his life. His mother is an immigrant who moved to the United States in search of money, but as soon as things fall apart, she leaves her family behind. As mentioned in the articles, this change provokes a sense of reality where one must learn to adapt and rely on themselves. Their comfort is altered, as well as their sense of “home.” The young boy must find his sense of belongness without his mother figure guiding him, as he is demented by the fear and confusion of her disappearance. What are other impacts change has on one’s identity?
Ballentyne, Susie, et al. “Lost in Transition: What Refugee Post‐migration Experiences Tell Us about Processes of Social Identity Change.” Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, vol. 31, no. 5, Sept. 2021, pp. 501–514. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1002/casp.2532
Hines-Martin, Vicki P. “Community Displacement, Environmental Change and the Impact on Mental Well-Being.” Archives of Psychiatric Nursing, 22 Oct. 2020, eds-a-ebscohost-com.proxy.lib.ohio-state.edu/eds/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=1103c21d-3e85-4047-a052-c83256856098%40sessionmgr4008&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmUmc2NvcGU9c2l0ZQ%3d%3d#.
Mishne, Judith. “Parental Abandonment: A Unique Form of Loss and Narcissistic Injury.” Clinical Social Work Journal, vol. 7, no. 1, Spring 1979, pp. 15–33. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1007/BF00761356.
Thank you for the well thought out, and informative presentation!
I enjoyed reading this post! It is interesting to think about the many ways that change may impact one’s identity.
Nice job on the post! I think you are spot on with the thought that abandonment triggers this sort of fight or flight response where Deming is forced to adapt to his surroundings. Without a guiding figure, it is difficult to adapt to any type of situation; almost like starting a new job with literally zero training. Except, for this young boy, his life is at stake and he will need to learn fast to overcome that abandonment in order to survive in a new society.
Thank you for this good post! Your description and research of negotiating identities were very informative. It was helpful to have a description of what the Social Identity Model requires and also what abandonment does to a child. This is because the story “The Leavers” is about a young boy whose mother abandons him in the U.S. as your presentation stated.
This Context Presentation is so good! Your summary of the book is very good and provides great context for the material this week. I liked your insight on what abandonment does to a child and how you related it to the story. Overall, your post is very well written and informative for this coming week of material!
I enjoyed reading you context presentation which was very well-written. I thought that including the outside resources to further elaborate on the change that affects one’s identity aided in supporting the summary that was written. You did a great job not only providing an informed summary but utilizing other sources and ideas as well to provide support for these ideas. Your post was well explained and descriptive, as it provided background information on this week’s themes and story. Therefore, before even reading the reading I was able to gain insight about this reading through your context presentation which outlines this week’s main theme and focus on identity.
This was a great presentation! I liked how you gave a summary of the novel; it gave me an idea of what to expect when reading this week. I also enjoyed how you connected your research from the articles to the story, and how much change in people’s lives can affect them. Overall, it was very well written and easy to understand, great job!
Hello! This was really a great post. I felt like you really gave me a sense of understanding about the book that I did not have prior to reading this. I couldn’t imagine dealing with what Deming dealt with in this story. Living in wonder about why your mother left you would be unimaginable pain. The connected article was also a great touch.
Another impact that change has on one’s identity is the idea that the way one thinks about themselves is severely altered as well. Any traumatic life experience could impact the inner determination of your reputation. If there is an experience that one has, say with a group of friends, and all of a sudden, those friends do not like you anymore, you probably would blame yourself for being the odd one out and not having friends and blame yourself more than, perhaps, just drifting apart in a relationship.
Thank you for the information! Your Context Presentation made great connections to The Leavers.
This was a really interesting post! I thought that the study about the Social Identity Model of Identity Change was really fascinating. If anyone is interested in trauma/identity, a great book to read is “The Body Keeps the Score”. I read that this summer and this post really reminded me of that book. I do think that Deming/Daniel went through pretty big traumas that no doubt shaped who he is now. We can have a lot more empathy for people when we understand trauma. I think it should be required learning for teachers, HCPs and other healthcare workers, and anyone who interacts with people regularly.
Great post! I think it was a really cool point that when someone adapts to a new environment or challenge, they must rely on themselves. As college students, we can all very closely relate to this because we were all thrown into school, some of us during a pandemic, and had to start over. In the beginning of college, we must all rely on our own morals and ideals to drive us in the right direction and find people with similar values.
I thought you did a really good job on your post in expanding on some of the ideas that we have seen come into play in this first part of the book. You mentioned how identity change requires, vulnerability, recovery, and discovery, and I thought that was a great way to describe what Deming is going through. We have seen how much Deming struggles to become Daniel, often calling his mother, thinking about Michael, or doing something to keep him in the past. But over time the recovery process begins, which leads to Daniel finding a new path for himself. Do you think if Deming was the same race as his adoptive parents that it would be an easy and quick process for him to assimilate? Anyways, great work on your post!
Thank you for the presentation! I liked your connections between abandonment and “The Leavers”.
Nice job on your context presentation! I understand firsthand how environmental changes can alter a person, feeling like you’re “starting over”. I’ve adapted to surrounding changes because my family relocated multiple times for my mom’s job promotions. I believe that all of us had to adjust to our new life at Ohio State. I would imagine it would be even harder to adjust to a new environment motherless. Lastly, I think change can influence one’s identity simply by just trying to fit into his/her surroundings. Deming had to adjust to living with a white foster family.
Thank for your presentation! Relating the studies of abandonment to the plot of the story helps drive home the thoughts and feelings Deming is going through after realizing the situation he has been left in. It is up to him to react to the nature that is around him now that his nurture side of growing up has been stripped away, great post!
HI. I enjoyed reading you presentation. I think you were able to connect how changes environments influences your idendity and The Leavers very well. In The Leavers Deming was able to keep both identites by thinking of living in two different realities, as Daniel and Deming. He doesn´t want to reject his either of his identites, so he develops a kind of fluid approach to his identity. You get forced to adapt to your surroundings, but by knowing where you came from it’s easier to not get lost in yourself and forget about who you were before. As I mentioned environment are a big part of your identity and a change in environment will definetely help shape you as a person. Change forces you to adapt to the people around you, and the culture as well.
Good job on your presentation. Deming was force to make a lot of changes in his life when his mother left him. He had to fend for himself to gain his own identity and make new surroundings work in his favor to succeed in life. I think the many changings he has had in life has impacted him a a very profound way.
Hello, your presentation was put together very well. You summed up the important parts of the reading and you explained them very well. I like how you explained the affects of abandonment and how ones mental health can be severely impacted by it. I think it is unfortunate the trauma had to become motivation in order to be successful.
This presentation is very well written. I really love that you examined the psychological and behavioral effects this can have on a child. I myself was very caught up in simply wondering where Polly went and why. I didn’t take enough time to think about the emotional trauma this would cause Deming. This presentation also provokes us to ask the question “How will we see these changes in Deming?” and “What changes will we see?”
Hello! This is such a well-written analysis! You put together all of the major parts of the story and it helps the readers gain insight and see how it felt to be Deming when his mother left him. Overall, I feel like this week’s reading has a lot of character study that can be done on it.
Hi! Very intersting presentation! I liked that you added the article which mentions the effects abandonment has on a child as well as the psychological aspects to it. Change has a huge impact on ones identity, so does ones environment, life experiences, society, etc.
Hello! This was super interesting to read and I think brought to light a few points I missed while reading the leavers. I think it was interesting the way you analyzed how this affected Deming as a young boy forced to fend for himself. Good job!
Your introduction helped me further understand the conflict in this novel, that is, the change of identity. Indeed, family education plays a decisive role in the formation of children’s identity. Deming’s growth experience is affected by many identity changes, which also leads to his confusion about his identity in the novel.