The Hermit and the Old Goat

Abstract

Narrated by a man looking back at his childhood, The Hermit and the Old Goat is loosely connected to real events. Placing herself in this fictional character’s mind allowed the author to explore with distant compassion the results of a traumatic family split. In self-narrative, we can re-script a traumatic experience’s meaning without having to depict it exactly as it happened. The trauma of losing one’s family disrupts one’s sense of self, one’s connection to the past and present and even the future. The Hermit and the Old Goat explores such trauma and its aftereffects from the reflective view of an outsider and his community. Such narrative distance in time, character, and even gender allows for an expression of forgiveness, understanding, and healing.