Adoptees as ticking time bombs, “he’s
f---ed up because he’s adopted.” ... There’s
more to it than that!
In last Thursday’s guest post, I wrote about problems
inherent in using adoption as a literary device in fiction. Today I’ll offer
solutions for creating nuanced adopted characters and plotlines.
Before I get all writerly* and practical, it’s full-disclosure
time: I was adopted as an infant in a closed, private adoption.
Terminology
Within the adoption community, there’s ongoing
debate about nomenclature ... Who cares
more about words than writers?
There’s the issue of who’s the “real” parent—the
one who raised the child, or the one who birthed her?
Um ... Both are real, this isn’t the Easter Bunny we’re talking about! They both exist. Attempting to “give credit where
credit is due” overlooks the reality that a birth mother is a mother, just one who didn’t raise her baby.
There are alternative phrases such as first
and second parents, birth mom, biological mother and adoptive mom. Some adult
adoptees opt out and call everyone by their first names.
On the other end of the spectrum is a woman I
read about recently who got pregnant as a result of being raped. She refers to
herself as the “maternal source” for that particular relinquished child (with
whom she wants no contact). She calls herself “mom” for the rest of her kids. Go
figure.
With something as simple as terminology,
writers can add nuance to their characters’ personalities, address questions of
identity, and show change and growth.
Writer Stacy
Clafin says that in her
upcoming YA novel, Deception, the main
character, Alexis, begins her journey frustrated with her adoptive parents,
longing for her birth parents. But she learns that she wouldn't be the person
that she is without what each parent has given her.
As a way of
distinguishing, Clafin says, “Alexis calls her adoptive parents ‘mom and dad’
and her birth parents ‘mother and father.’”
Let’s get technical—literary
devices
Adoption can be used to great effect as a Chekhov's gun, in which a
seemingly insignificant aspect of a character's background becomes important
later on. In other words, the circumstances of the character’s adoption become
a plot twist, a "reveal."
But it’s important to not use adoption as a
cop-out. For example, blogger and adoption activist Amanda
Woolston takes issue with Christian, the adopted Fifty Shades of Grey character
Portraying
adoptees and fostered adults as psychotic, making the only representation of an
original mother as the stereotypical "crack wh*re" ... That's not all
that "gray" to me.
For people who have experienced the
life-altering complications of adoption, such simple explanations are dues ex machina, an unsatisfying
way of resolving a story’s conflict.
Truly, there are many interesting, creative
ways to write-in psychosis. Adoption doesn’t need to be the over-arching
explanation for a character’s mental issues. Have you ever written an adopted
character? What are your thoughts on adoption in fiction?
*
* * * *
Laura Dennis
was born and adopted in New Jersey, raised in Maryland. You can read more about
her adoption reunion and brief bout with insanity in Adopted Reality, A Memoir, now available in paperback and ebook.
November is NaBloPoMo, and we, the contributors at Lost Daughters,
are posting each day on a different adoption topic. It’s worth checking out.
* Yes, I know, writerly isn’t a word, but it
should be!