The Analysis of Lily Bloom’s Trauma in Colleen Hoover’s it Ends with Us
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.59011/austronesian.4.2.2025.121-134Keywords:
Trauma, Coping mechanism, Self-conflictAbstract
This study investigates the representation of trauma in Colleen Hoover’s It Ends with Us through the experiences of the main character, Lily Bloom. The objective is to identify how Lily’s trauma is reflected, its causes, its effects, and the coping mechanisms she employs. A psychological approach is applied, drawing on the theories of Cathy Caruth, Judith Herman, and James Pennebaker, with descriptive qualitative analysis used to examine textual evidence from the novel. The findings show that Lily’s trauma is reflected in repetitive behaviors such as shuffling cards and in dissociative experiences like hallucinations. The primary cause of her trauma is her father’s domestic violence, while its effects include difficulties in relationships, emotional conflict, and instability, but also resilience and post-traumatic growth. Expressive writing functions as her main coping strategy, helping her process painful memories and ultimately break the cycle of abuse. This study concludes that It Ends with Us portrays the psychological complexity of trauma and emphasizes the role of literature in representing recovery. The research contributes to trauma studies and literary analysis by demonstrating how fiction can reveal the lived realities of trauma survivors and provide insight into pathways of healing.
References
Ahsan, S. (2023). Identifying Self-conceptualization: Psychoanalytic Concepts of Trauma Traced in It Ends with Us (2016). Pakistan Journal of Society, Education and Language (PJSEL), 9(2).
Aleksandrowicz-Pędich, L. (2020). Literary Means of Expressing Trauma: Silence and Darkness in Dara Horn’s novel The World to Come. Res Rhetorica, 7(4), 2–16. https://doi.org/10.29107/rr2020.4.1
Allen, J. K. (2022). Tove Ditlevsen’s Witness of Trauma as a Source of Hope. Humanities, 11(5), 122. https://doi.org/10.3390/h11050122
Baikie, K. A., & Wilhelm, K. (2005). Emotional and Physical Health Benefits of Expressive Writing. Advances in Psychiatric Treatment, 11(5), 338–346. https://doi.org/10.1192/apt.11.5.338
Caruth, C. (1996). Unclaimed Experience: Trauma, Narrative, and History. Johns Hopkins University Press.
Cash, J. W. (2022). Trauma. In The Routledge Companion to Literature of the U.S. South (pp. 371–374). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003009924-93
Cattell, R. B. (2008). The 16PF fifth edition. In H. Cattell, The Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF) (p. 135).
Dunnack, E. S., & Park, C. L. (2009). The Effect of an Expressive Writing Intervention on Pronouns: The Surprising Case of I. Journal of Loss and Trauma, 14(6), 436–446. https://doi.org/10.1080/15325020902925084
Forcinito, A. (2022). Literature, Trauma, and Human Rights. In Latin American Literature in Transition 1980–2018 (pp. 30–46). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108976459.003
Freud, S. (1917). Mourning and Melancholia. In J. Strachey (Ed. & Trans.), The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud (Vol. 14, pp. 243–258). Hogarth Press. (Original work published 1915)
Garland, C. (2018). Thinking about Trauma. In Understanding trauma (pp. 9–31). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429484575-2
Herman, J. L. (1992). Trauma and recovery: The Aftermath of Violence—From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror. Basic Books.
Hoover, C. (2016). It ends with us. Atria Books.
Jeenah, F. Y., & Moosa, M. Y. H. (2012). The Impact of Trauma on the Psyche. In Penetrating Trauma (pp. 549–556). Springer Berlin Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-20453-1_72
Joplin, J. (2000). The Therapeutic Benefits of Expressive Writing. Academy of Management Perspectives, 14(2), 124–125. https://doi.org/10.5465/ame.2000.26207955
Juth, V., Arigo, D., & Smyth, J. M. (2020). Expressive writing. In The Wiley Encyclopedia of Health Psychology (pp. 149–158). Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119057840.ch61
Kamalakannan, K. (2024). Behind Closed Doors: The Emotional Battlefield of Domestic Abuse in It Ends with Us. International Journal of Creative Research Thoughts (IJCRT), 12(10).
Kanishkaa, & Lizy. (2023). Silent Screams: Unmasking the Harsh Realities of Domestic Violence in It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover. International Journal of Novel Research and Development (IJNRD), 8(12).
Kunt, G. (2015). Ironic Narrative Agency as a Method of Coping with Trauma in the Diary-Memoir of Margit K., a Female Holocaust Survivor. Hungarian Cultural Studies, 7, 28–40. https://doi.org/10.5195/ahea.2014.137
Levy. (2015, June 24). Psychology, Trauma. Evergreen Psychotherapy.
Lim, Y., & Lye, K. Y. (2024). Introduction. In Reading Violence and Trauma in Asia and the World (pp. 1–7). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781032628875-1
Luthra, R., Abramovitz, R., Greenberg, R., Schoor, A., Newcorn, J., Schmeidler, J., Levine, P., Nomura, Y., & Chemtob, C. M. (2009). Relationship Between Type of Trauma Exposure and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Among Urban Children and Adolescents. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 24(11), 1919–1927. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260508325494
Naik, A. R., & Khan, S. M. (2019). Post Traumatic Growth: An Overview. International Journal of Advance and Innovative Research, 6(4), 1–4.
Narayan, A. (2012). Post Traumatic Stress Disorder – An Overview. In Post Traumatic Stress Disorders in a Global Context. InTech. https://doi.org/10.5772/26012
Otaiwi, S. I., Mohsen, A. A., & Yousif, M. K. (2025). Romanticizing Bad Guys: A Psychological Analysis of Ryle in Colleen Hoover’s It Ends with Us. Zanco Journal of Humanity Sciences, 29(Con.1), 607–614. https://doi.org/10.21271/zjhs.29.Con.1.42
Pedersen, D. (2015). Rethinking Trauma as a Global Challenge. In Trauma and Migration (pp. 9–31). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-17335-1_2
Pennebaker, J. W., & Smyth, J. M. (2016). Opening Up by Writing It Down: How Expressive Writing Improves Health and Eases Emotional Pain (3rd ed.). The Guilford Press.
Peterson, J. (2022). Narrating Our Wounds: Trauma, Literature and Vocation. In Cultivating Vocation in Literary Studies (pp. 233–254). Edinburgh University Press. https://doi.org/10.3366/edinburgh/9781474490009.003.0012
Salihi, O., & Othman, K. (2024). The Narrative of Trauma in Art Spiegelman’s Maus. International Journal of Social Science and Human Research, 7(3). https://doi.org/10.47191/ijsshr/v7-i03-45
Shafir, H. (2022). Trauma and the Brain: What Happens When You Experience Trauma. Choosing Therapy. https://www.choosingtherapy.com/trauma-brain/
Shultz, D., & Shultz, S. (2015). Theories of Personality. Cengage Learning.
Singer, G. H. S., Early, J., Buschor, T., Hoerberg, D., & Zhang, H. (2022). Writing as Physical and Emotional Healing. In The Routledge International Handbook of Research on Writing (pp. 394–407). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429437991-32
Streeck-Fischer, A. (2021). Complex and Sequential Traumatic Stress Disorders. In Social Trauma – An Interdisciplinary Textbook (pp. 155–162). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-47817-9_16
Verma, A., Malik, P., & Panghal, P. (2024). Unravelling the Cause and Consequences of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder: A Comprehensive Review. International Journal for Multidisciplinary Research, 6(4). https://doi.org/10.36948/ijfmr.2024.v06i04.24769
Wilhelm, K., & Crawford, J. (2020). Expressive Writing and Stress-Related Disorders. In K. L. Harkness & E. P. Hayden (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Stress and Mental Health (pp. 704–724). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190681777.013.34
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Lidya G. Sarungu, Ambar Andayani
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
