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Becoming Robert Virtue is a chapter within a much larger story that I’ve written—one that explores the lifelong impact of childhood trauma, identity, and the masks we learn to wear in order to survive.
Becoming Robert Virtue follows nine-year-old Robert, who witnesses his mentally ill mother stab his father to death before taking her own life. Orphaned and traumatized, Robert is shuffled between relatives who view him with fear and stigma—worried he might be “contaminated” by his mother’s condition rather than seeing him as a victim.
He’s sent to live with his godmother Celeste and her husband Samuel, a retired baseball player, in their pristine suburban mini-mansion. In this world of carefully maintained perfection, Robert realizes that acceptance requires suppressing any sign of pain or struggle. Watching idealized TV families and sharing seemingly perfect evenings with the Virtues, Robert makes a conscious choice: he will perform normalcy and happiness, hiding all trauma beneath a carefully constructed persona. The “facade begins.”
Written by Wendell Etherly (USA)