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black and blue book review

Decent Essays

Black and Blue: by Anna Quindlen The task assigned is a review of the book Black and Blue by Anna Quindlen. I will provide examples and summarize the main concepts of the book to include Intimate Partner Violence, Battering, and Intimate Terrorism. I will reference the text Family Violence, Across the Lifespan by Ola W. Barnett, Cindy Miller-Perrin, and Robin D. Perrin in order to support my theoretical claims. I will select a critical part of the book and explain why it was challenging to read and understand based on my perspective, and then select a character to analyze using one of the theoretical perspective. This book is sad and disturbing, the punishment inflicted on Fran by her husband Bobby Benedetto is unacceptable and …show more content…

It is hard to analyze Bobby as a character by using one theoretical perspective but I am confident that Lenore Walker’s “Cycle of Violence Theory” (Barnett, Miller-Perrin, and Perrin 315) best describes Bobby’s behaviors as a classic batterer. As defined, the theory has three phase’s, the first phase is “Tension Building”, minor incidents of violence, along with the build-up of anger, verbal put-downs, jealousy, threats, and breaking things. This phase could describe the initial escalation by Bobby to start intimidating Fran prior to their marriage. The second phase is the “Battering Phase”, where major violent outbursts occur like Bobby breaking Fran’s collarbone and nose. The last phase is the “Honeymoon Phase” where the perpetrator is remorseful and loving. There were times where this would apply, but Bobby was not consistently loving after he beat Fran, rather he would often attempt to downplay the intensity and effects or even blame Fran for causing the incident while downplaying his violence, and in some cases denying that it took place, as with the initial instance where Bobby explained that he “just came at you a lil”. Even though socialization theories are not explored in the nearly 400 pages of this book, the most significant and understandable piece of information comes from a brief dialogue between Fran and

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