Jeannette And The Child Abuse Essay

Child abuse is a socially constructed problem. It is a problem that is growing bigger. Beating children is not defined as child abuse in every part of the world; and certainly if you go back far enough in time, the concept of child abuse did not even exist. What western society considers child abuse today may have been considered appropriate discipline in the past. The idea of childhood as being a time in which children develop their intelligence, abilities, and individual personalities, and the idea that society should protect and foster this development and safeguard the innocence of childhood, are modern conceptions. The past did not view childhood in this way and therefore children could be, and were, treated as chattel with no rights. Therefore the idea of child abuse did not exist in the past. Child abuse is a social problem because it socially constructed; modern society has deemed it to be a problem.

Jeannette’s self-reliant behavior is frequently shown through her refusal of help from others. On one trip to retrieve her father from a bar, Jeannette’s father is so drunk that he can no longer walk. Another man offers to drive them home, and

While her father’s dismisses his destructive nature, Jeannette becomes conscious of his actions which motivates her to make amends in hopes of leaving their desolate life. Instead of getting help for his childhood trauma, Rex immerses himself in alcohol causing him to become

Furthermore, Walls uses vivid imagery of abusive actions to show that determination and a hopeful spirit can help anyone overcome obstacles to achieve his or her desires. However, before Walls had the determination to leave, she encountered another series of unfortunate event when an eight-year-old boy named Billy Deel and his father moved into the area. The author writes, “Billy smushed his face against mine, then grabbed my hair and made my head bend sideways and stuck his tongue in my mouth. It was slimy and disgusting, but when I tried to pull away, he pushed in toward me. The more I pulled, the more he pushed, until he was on top of me and I felt his fingers tugging at my shorts. His other hand was unbuttoning his own pants…” (Walls 54). Evidently, in this excerpt, it can be implied that Jeannette has been raped. Walls tried to stop him as she thinks back to what her dad told to her to do if a guy jumped on her, but because she couldn’t “knee him in the groin”, Walls used common sense and bit Billy on the ear as hard as

At some point in their life, every person has been told to “walk in somebody else’s shoes” because they need to be aware of the struggles that other people face, but it is often tough for people to understand things outside of the scope of their own practical knowledge. In her memoir, Lucky, Alice Sebold suffers from this same problem. Throughout the course of her narrative, Sebold thinks of her experience as something that is accessible to be understood by outsiders; in addition to this, Sebold paints her reactions and experiences as a model that she can apply to other victims of sexual assault. Even though Sebold’s story is one of strength in the face of horrible occurrences, her lack of acknowledgement in regards the ways in which other people’s consciousness and coping mechanisms differ from her own makes it far more difficult to sympathize with her than it should be considering the content of her memoir. Evidence of her closed world understanding can be seen from the beginning of the memoir, when she reports her sexual assault to the police (Sebold, 3), later in the narrative, when other people react to her experiences and related feelings (Sebold 146), and finally, and perhaps most significantly, when her close friend Lila undergoes a sexual assault (Sebold 220).

In her younger years, Jeannette was an smart and imaginative child. At first, she enjoyed moving around, and had a lot of faith in her father, which created a good relationship between them. “All we had to was find gold, once we’d struck it rich, he’d [Rex] start work on our Glass Castle” (Walls, 25). The tremendous faith that she has in Rex creates a strong bond because she is the only family member who trusts his ideas. Unfortunately, he is a raging alcoholic who can’t hold a job, so most of his promises are broken. As Jeannette gets older, he lets her down more and more. One time he brought her to a bar where she was then sexually violated. When the two had a talk after, he said “I knew you could handle yourself” (Walls, 213,) instead of defending her. It was upsetting to watch their relationship grow apart and to see how poorly he provided for his family, yet they still loved him.

“He [Jeannette’s father, Rex] will not keep me out of harm’s way, he will put me in harm’s way and I have to find a way to remove myself from the situation.” (Diversity Connection). I feel like this quote, from Jeannette, came t directly from the situation where Rex took her out to the bar to help him earn money for alcohol, but yet she still doesn’t see herself as a victim. Even though Jeannette Walls was the victim of sexual abuse at a very young age, she tries to recreate the freedom from her childhood into her adult life, But in her younger years where she has no occupational activities, no nurturing, no money and no friends to turn to, it proves to be very hard to maintain.

When Jeannette’s mother did come, it was evident that she cared about the safety and well-being of her child: “Mom ran into the room” (9). Seeing as she came running rather than strolling, it can be inferred that her mother is attentive and worried about her daughter; however, once in the hospital, her father has an averse reaction to her injuries and the fact that she’s in the hospital when he says: “You shouldn’t be in this antiseptic joint” (13). Most parents would fret over their child and let the hospital do whatever they saw fit to help their child, but her father Rex doesn’t trust the hospital and potentially jeopardizes his daughter’s health by not adhering to the hospital's recommendations. A parallel episode to this tragic fire incident is when the family is staying at a hotel and are woken up in the middle of the night by a fire. The whole building burns down, similar to how Jeanette's favorite pink dress was completely singed and had to be cut

While Jeannette was in New York she met new people and was bettering herself. Although, she did not live in a good neighborhood she did not let that effect her negatively and she said “I got jumped a number of times. People were always telling me that if I was robbed, I should hand over my money rather than risk being killed. But I was darned if I was going to give some stranger my hard-earned cash, and I didn't want to become known in the neighborhood as an easy target, so I always fought back” (Walls 248). #Jeannette stood up for herself in these situations and she did whatever it took to get through them. Most people would not fight back and just give the person what they wanted but she never did. She became familiar with this and used it to her advantage to defend

From grandmother Erma touching Brian’s private bits to Uncle Stanley placing his hands on Jeannette’s thighs. From Rex and Rosemary Walls comes no support for their children. Instead, Walls recounts being told, “ sexual assault was a crime of perception” (Walls 184). Rosemary explains to Jeannette she feels sorry for Uncle Stanley who had just finished groping her thigh. Rosemary takes Uncle Stanley’s side when she should comfort her daughter throughout all the sexual assault she has been put through. This causes Jeannette to give up her showering at her grandpa’s house so she would no longer need to encounter Uncle Stanley. This was her way of growing up to protect herself from another incident.

Jeannette is sitting in a taxi, worrying about being overdressed for a party when outside the cab, her mother wears ragged clothes while digging through trash. Thus, this scene introduces the quandary Jeannette finds herself in when she skips the party and goes home: She has wealth and social privilege, which her mother does not, and Jeannette must come to terms with this disparity. This specific entry caught my attention, my mother always tells me i’ll do greater things her and my father ever did and when I read this in the beginning I felt if I were put in that situation I’d feel guilty to see my mother digging through

This paper will investigate the abuse of children and some of the ways which young children are affected developmentally. I will try and present an overview of the major types of abuse but my big focus and most of my research has been to cover sexual abuse and its effect on development in young children and how it can affect brain development.

Child maltreatment is a widespread issue that affects thousands of children every year. There are four common types of child maltreatment; sexual abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse and neglect. All of these types of abuse are very serious and can have many consequences for the children and families. The most common consequence of severe child maltreatment is the removal of that child from their home (Benbenishty, Segev, Surkis, and Elias, 2002). Most social workers trying to determine the likelihood of removal evaluate the type and severity of abuse, as well as the child’s relationship with their parents (Benbenishty et al., 2002). When children are removed from their homes there are many options of alternative housing. The

Tom sat on the sofa, his shoulders hunched forward, his eyes staring listlessly into space. In his hands, a forgotten cup of coffee trembled violently, the lukewarm liquid spilling over his fingers. He hadn’t uttered a single word since his impassioned attempt to justify Booker’s assault, and as the minutes ticked by, his silence only added to Doug’s concerns. Although not an expert, as a cop, Penhall understood about trauma, and fearing his friend was going into shock, he made the decision to call 911. With an ambulance on its way, he dialed a second number, and after a brief conversation, he hung up. Turning his attention to Tom, he wondered how to proceed. While he wanted to offer comfort, he honestly did not know what to say. How did you console the victim of sexual assault when the perpetrator was a trusted colleague you worked side by side with day in day out? He was out of his depth and terrified of making matters worse, but he knew he needed to do something other than making a cup of coffee, and approaching Tom, he squatted down and laid a hand on his knee. “How ya doin’, buddy?”

In today’s society, child abuse is widespread and has an affect on everyone who comes across it. The act of child abuse happens everyday to a variety of kids who are typically younger and scared to tell anyone. All children are born with the right to be able to develop, grow, live and love according to their needs and feelings. For a child 's development they need protection and reassurance from adults who love them and help them acquire the skills to be a successful adult. However, some children are neglected and hurt by adults that they trust. The abuse a child receives makes them feel bad about themselves, and it is much worse when it occurs within a family because it makes them feel unloved and alone causing them to have problems. “Abuse of all types was more frequent in those from disturbed and disrupted family backgrounds. Logistic regressions indicated that some, though not all, of the apparent associations between abuse and adult problems was accounted for by this matrix of childhood disadvantage from which abuse so often emerged. Numerous studies have investigated the psychological sequelae of childhood trauma, including posttraumatic stress disorder(PTSD), dissociation, personality disorder, and substance abuse ”(“New Retrospective Measure of Child Abuse and Neglect” by David P. Bernstein). The act of child abuse causes kids to have one or more mental problems. Additionally, since people do not recognize the abuse while it is occurring, it causes these problems to