Jess Gebauer-Frued, Uncanny

The story told in this reading is of a man that as a child dealt with a traumatic and reoccurring happening. The Sandman, who visited children who would not go to sleep and tore out their eyes, killed his father. The Sandman also reappeared later in his life, tricking the young man into falling deeply in love with an automaton doll. At first this story had little effect on me, but after getting away from the original theme, love of an automaton, as said by Freud, I was able to come away with an interesting take on it. What resonated for me in this story was how profoundly events in a persons childhood can impact them throughout their lives. The older I get, the more I realize how binding it can be to have a traumatic event happen in your childhood. I find myself, although the events I refer to are not nearly as bad as in Freud's story, replaying certain events that happened to me as a child from time to time. It is strange that many years later I can recall so many details and emotions. I think that as a child, it is hard to put things in perspective, so perhaps the reaction of a child to what is happening is more sever, thus leaving the child with a much longer and larger impact of the event. I know that is true for me. Though I am an adult, there are certain things that happened in my childhood (and as a teenager) that are still with me and can be painful at times. I too, knew about the Sandman as a child, but luckily my parents told me he was a nice person who simply helped you fall asleep.