My thoughts on new chapter 5 on Riley trauma (SPOILER⚠️embrace LONG read):
In this 5 chapter, I want to focus on two characters: "Joy" and "Triley," and how their behavior and thought processes conflict and contrast. I love how the first half of the chapter explores Joy's denial: her fear of Triley and refusal to accept Triley as part of Riley. As a result, Joy pushes away negativity and tries to stay confident, saying to everyone, "We need to smile, good vibes, good healing." The phrase that Joy mentioned, "negativity hurts recovery," really does emphasize her own thought process, which can highlight "the theme of toxic positivity," where one dismisses the true pain and has no valid feelings.
Ultimately, Joy's behavior of fostering "toxic positivity" affects Triley, too. You can see how Triley felt "Weak" after sensing confidence had been built up for Riley, slowing down her move to the second half of the chapter. But Triley knows how important and essential it is to remember all the negativity Riley has gone through. Her phrase "Her positivity is poison" is a second key point: Joy herself probably doesn't realize that what she is doing is actually poison to Riley because she denies negativity. What really hit me emotionally was when Triley found out about the graves of memories that were forgotten. Instead of ignoring them, as Joy does, Triley embraces those painful, grief-filled memories with a hug and understanding. As myself who lost one this year, When you lose a pet or someone close to you, we need to "grieve," "remember," and "honor" the memories, because what Triley said, "they really matter."
It's the healthiest way to deal and cope with our pain, to feel how truly it feels, not faking our own emotions, or being happy and smiling all the time. Sometimes, it's really okay to be NOT okay. From a Triley perspective, I felt so much empathy and care from her again, and I felt the deep struggle with joy throughout this chapter, too. It was truly an AMAZING and FANTASTIC journey and storytelling, and I had a BLAST time enjoying it!!!!