preview

Child Abuse in Flannery O’Connors' Short Story “The River

Decent Essays
Open Document
Child abuse is something that is very apparent in the world but is something that people find awkward to talk about Flannery O’Connors short story “The River” talks about a young boy Harry who isn’t taken care of very well and has a hard life. Throughout the story it is presented that Harry’s parents are unfit, he is neglegted at home, and everything is joke to the family. Harry’s parents don’t really know how to raise a child. The spend their days partying and drinking. When the sitter first arrived to pick Harry up, his father was almost pushing him out the door, because he wanted to sleep later. His father handed Harry over to the sitter, barely dressed in clothes that were way to big for him, and not even a thought of feeding him breakfast. He has no real diet and the food that he eats he just finds food around the house, and whatever looks good he eats. When Harry came home that night he had to figure out his own dinner, and when he checked the fridge it was full of old, shriveled up fruit and vegtables, cheese, some old fish, and a pork bone. Nothing in the fridge Harry could eat, so he settled for the two end pieces of raisin break, and a half of a jar of peanut butter, and a large glass of choclate milk.
Harry’s mother is an alcoholic, and the morning when the sitter picked Harry up she hadn’t gotten out of bed so the sitter took that to mean she was sick, when in reality it was just hungover. During the baptism Harry reveals the truth about his mother and
Get Access
Related
Get Access