Silenced Struggles, Shared Healing: Psychological Insights into Kalaiarasan’s Journey in Kana Kaanum Kaalangal

Abstract

Adolescence is a time when emotions, thinking, and social life are changing rapidly, and losing caregivers suddenly can shake a young person’s sense of stability. In the Tamil web series Kana Kaanum Kaalangal, the character Kalaiarasan experiences this kind of loss when his parents are tragically killed. The series shows his journey through intense trauma, gradual healing, and eventually personal growth. This paper looks at how Kalaiarasan reacts in terms of behavior, emotions, and thoughts, connecting his experiences to psychological ideas such as Kübler-Ross’s stages of grief, Bowlby’s attachment theory, Stroebe and Schut’s dual-process model, Neimeyer’s meaning reconstruction, and Tedeschi and Calhoun’s posttraumatic growth. At first, he withdraws, stays quiet, and keeps people at a distance. these behaviors help him cope with his pain. Emotionally, he feels sadness, worry, and some anger, though he hides it most of the time. In his thinking, he often reflects on what happened, stays alert to reminders of the trauma, and slowly starts trying to make sense of his loss. Kalaiarasan never seeks revenge; he just wants to live a peaceful life. The story shows how support from friends and teachers, resilience, and finding personal meaning in difficult experiences can help an adolescent recover. Understanding his journey can give researchers and professionals ideas about how to support teens facing serious loss.