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Recently we have witnessed a proliferation of movies about children in crisis and their resiliency. Empire of the Sun, Hope and Glory, and My Life as a Dog all stress the protagonist's coping ability.
My focus in this paper will be on showing how war itself acts as a model of a “holding environment” through which a child's past identifications, innate endowment, and capacity for play are utilized to master psychic trauma. Secondly, an attempt will be made to understand this paradox (war as a holding environment) by showing how the developmental tasks of latency make something constructive out of the ruins of war.
Steven Spielberg's Empire of the Sun, a stunning evocation of J. G. Ballard's autobiographical novel, is,’ on one level, the story of the end of British colonialism in China. On another more poignant level, it is the coming of age saga of a young boy forced to cope with his wrenching separation from his parents. The sun sets on Jaime's world of privilege and entitlement, leaving him a stranger in a hostile world. We will trace his transformation from the shiny, blazer-clad boy to the bomber jacketed “Milo Minderbinder” of the detainment camp.
The place is Shanghai, 1941. Juxtaposed to the exquisite Welsh hymn of the “Suo Gan” sung by our protagonist, Jaime, and his schoolmates, is an aerial view of delicate floral wreaths floating down the river. On closer scrutiny, the viewer is taken aback with the realization that small burial coffins of children are floating amid the wreaths.
Though intimations of mortality abound, our hero is very much alive. No ordinary boy, Jaime's fantasies take the form of flight. Model airplanes hang like puppets from his ceiling. He is