“Dolores Claiborne”

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A Character in Arrested Development Dr. Kathryn Rodriguez 3/18/2011 Human Growth and Development Amy Kathryn Simmons I watched a movie entitled “Dolores Claiborne” and intend to argue that the main character’s daughter, Selena St. George, is arrested in early adolescence, as well as a stage two moral development. Selena’s character is dually frozen due to multiple traumas. Selena’s basic story is as such: Her father died when she was 13 and her mother was accused of his murder but acquitted. We come to find later in the story that her father had been sexually abusing her for some period of time prior to his death. It is her abuse that accounts for the moral arrest and trauma of negative celebrity and the essential mental breakdown that followed cause her to arrest again, this time developmentally in an early adolescent mind set. It should be noted that arrested development rarely finds itself isolated from other mental health issues, so there will be other issues discussed here, as it is impossible to intervene for her without recognizes everything presenting itself. Selena is selfish, childish and petty. She is still overly aggressive. She acts very much like a teenager. All here body language and attitude is that of an early adolescent girl. She is less than concerned with the events that are happening around here but with the perceived attitudes and her personal sense of justice. Her mother likely murdered her father when she was about 13 which she, as an abuse victim could have taken some solace in but instead takes her father’s side and lashes out towards her mother. She is consistently unaware and uncaring in regards to the emotions and situations around her. She feels much more adult than she acts, as though she needs to know better than her mother. Selena has become an alcoholic and drug-abuser as the result of what she has repressed. Also, she is

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