'The Veldt, And Sredni Vashtar'

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Recommended: How abuse affects the child's emotional development

Everything else you grow out of, but you never recover from childhood. Love and affection during their formative years allow children to mature to stable adults. Children raised in neglectful situations turn bitter and their morals never develop correctly. Children raised in abusive households can see turning violence back unto their abuser as the only means of escape. As a consequence of lonely childhoods and callous guardians, the children in “Sweets to the Sweet”, “The Veldt”, and “Sredni Vashtar” turn to malicious supernatural ways to cope with their situations.
The abuse Irma receives at the hands of her father in “Sweets for the Sweet” evokes her to resort to ruthless magic as a means to escape her father. Being “a lonely, neglected …show more content…

The level of loneliness caused by solely interacting with one hateful guardian, along with the malicious super natural murder of said guardian, bears close resemblance to Irma’s story. When the narrator notes that “without his imagination, which was rampant under the spur of loneliness, he would have succumbed long ago” (n. pag.), it corroborates to the fact that Conradin was so lonely he began worshiping a giant ferret. His guardian did not hide her dislike towards Conradin, therefor he has no one to teach him of his self worth. As a result, Conradin also does not have any place to put the affection he has inside himself. Thus, the religion Conradin builds around Sredni Vashtar symbolizes his efforts to create somewhere he can distribute this affection he has inside. As was with the children and machines in “The Veldt”, Sredni Vashtar becomes a far more important guardian in Conradin’s life than his cousin. In Condradin’s mind, Mrs. De Ropp being murdered is equal to her threatening to remove Sredni Vashtar from his life. Conradin choosing Sredni Vashtar in the situation reflects how Mrs. De Ropp being cold and apathetic towards Conradin taught him to act the same way towards her. As was with Irma’s dad, Mrs. De Ropp almost brought her fate upon herself due to neglecting to raise Conradin in a warm and caring

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