V.C. Andrews' Dawn and the Discovery of Self
The moral case for discovering yourself over time.
People don't come into the world fully formed.
Over the course of your life, different parts of yourself become revealed. Things you didn't know either about yourself or the people around you. In particular your family can be very revealing, because they came before you did for the most part. At the very least your parents and any siblings or parents they had came before you. They had lives before which you have no idea about. Only when they choose to tell you about them do you learn these facts and sometimes they are partly true and partly false. Your parents will reveal what they feel is important for you to know and keep hidden things they don't think mean as much. This doesn't mean that you don't want to know these facts, just that this is what means the most to them.
What they tell you about themselves and your own family history informs how you think about yourself and how you present to other people. So the more you know about what's true and what's not about your life and history, the better that idea of you reflects the reality. Unfortunately, when your family keeps things from you and you then discover it's not true, it can collapse your whole idea of the world and who you are at the core. Yet at the same time, you haven't actually changed. These facts about you were true when you didn't know them just as much as they are now that you do. It might impact the circumstances you live under though. For instance how much money your family has or the status you have with your friends.
Recognizing this change can tell you a lot about yourself. Especially in how you react to these changes because it shows how much of you is solid or simply based on your own situation. If you don't change who you are or how you act towards others, that shows you that your idea of the world is solid. However if you change who you are and how you treat people, this makes your worldview really unstable and potentially even destructive. At the same time if your family changes the way they treat you, that tells you something about what they taught you and how much they really believe in them. Sadly, not everyone is on a solid enough foundation to maintain who they are in the face of these powerful changes.
V.C. Andrew's Dawn is at its core about how learning more about yourself changes your sense of self. Dawn Longchamp aka Eugenia Culter, as played brilliantly by Brec Bassinger, has to deal with this on a pretty massive scale. Pretty much everything about her has some new thing she didn't know before. Starting with something as fundamental as who her family is and even her own name. They aren't what she thought they were. But that's far from the end of the problems she deals with. As a result of this new information, a never ending series of destructive secrets comes out about her life and who she is. Yet through all this, she manages to stay somewhat stable in who she is and what she believes.
It's incredibly difficult but there's only so much she can do about that. So instead she forges on and keeps going.
Do yourself a favour and check out V.C. Andrew's Dawn as soon as you can.
V.C. Andrews’ Dawn is available on Lifetime as well as Amazon.
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