Childhood Trauma Cordelia

Cordelia is one of Elaine’s school friends whom she meets after she returns from a summer vacation. In “A Study of Childhood Trauma”, Anna Lloyd argues that Cordelia indeed is a victim of an abusive family structure. Cordelia belongs to the upper class family and her house is ornamented in ways unfamiliar to Elaine for the reason that, not only her house is larger than her friends’ houses but the colors inside are light and welcoming as well. Cordelia’s mother also buys flowers to put in the Swedish vases; a habit that is unusual to Elaine. Moreover, Cordelia mentioned several times that they have a cleaning lady referred to as “the woman”. When it comes to her sisters, Cordelia has two older sisters, Perdita and Miranda, or Perdie and Mirrie

In addition, she is also well-informed with how to behave when in the company of girls. These social skills allow her to become the leader of the group of friends, as well as the inciter of the bullying of Elaine (Lloyd 14). Elaine becomes a scapegoat for her friends who abuse her and Cordelia in particular. The trio of Carol, Grace and Cordelia constantly criticizes Elaine for her shortcomings and dominates her with the excuse of improving her manners and personality. Pavla Chudějová in “Exploring the women’s experience” states that since Cordelia cannot compare to her attractive and talented older sisters, she makes great effort to keep up appearances in fear of being considered “disappointing” (Cat’s Eye 73). As Cordelia cannot adjust to the social expectations required in her family and in attempt to liberate herself from the constant surveillance performed over her, she refocuses her gaze to Elaine. Elaine presents an easy outlet for Cordelia’s frustrations because she is completely unaware of gender restrictions (43-44). As noted earlier, two events demonstrate Cordelia’s cruel treatment of Elaine. The first incident occurs when she digs a hole in her backyard and the three girls bury Elaine alive in it. While the second event happens as Cordelia throws Elaine’s hat into the ravine and forces her to bring it. Later on, Cordelia attends a private school but is expelled for making an indecent drawing. Cordelia in high school rejoins Elaine but she pays little attention to her schoolwork and takes to shoplifting small items from stores, for instance tubes of lipstick. When Elaine meets Cordelia as an adult, Cordelia remembers the hole and claims that her aim was never to bury Elaine. Cordelia states