What we can't avoid

Abstract

What We Can't Avoid is a memoir that explores the narrator's excavation of family dynamics, and who her parents are and grow to become as she comes into adulthood. This memoir is a collection of personal essays that come together to create four chapters. The first is a focus on the narrator's mother, and her journey through infidelity, divorce, and an emotionally abusive relationship. The second chapter looks at the father, his affair, the effect of his career as a doctor in the Army, and the tension between his ego and his love for his family. The third chapter breaks away from the parents and zeroes in on the narrator and her older sister, exploring how girlhood and family trauma inform the coming into adulthood, and how these sisters may break away from the roles they were assigned in their family unit. The fourth and final chapter offers a brief look at how each member of this family might move forward from the fracturing that has occurred over several years, and how they might each achieve self-actualization and empathetic perseverance.