Blog 4 - Option 3

Many of the readings we have gone over in class have brought up issues of abuse or neglect within families. In Bastard out of Carolina, Bones’ mother is more worried about herself than she is about her two daughters. Most of the time Bone is able to get away with running to her aunt’s house or breaking into a store with her cousin because neither her mother or step father pay much attention to her. Throughout the whole novel Bone’s stepfather Glen is constantly making comments or behaving in a way to express to Bone that he doesn’t care about her and she is worthless. By the end of the novel Glen sexually assaults Bone right as her mother walks in to see what he has done. “’You little cunt. I should have done this a long time ago. You’ve always wanted it. Don’t tell me you don’t’(Allison, 284)” Glen gets mad at Bone and forces himself on her telling her she wants him o do what he is doing to her.  Unfortunately Bone’s mother never wanted to admit neglect of her children and refused to believe that Glen is actually a bad man and shouldn’t be apart of their family. When she tries to get Bone to the hospital she seems to be hesitating. She struggles with the idea that she allowed someone to get close enough to harm her child like that, but at the same time she also loved Glen and struggles seeing him slam his head into her car door. By the end of the novel Bone’s mother disappears. Dylan Farrow recently came into the news with a similar story of how she was abused by her father. “I was terrified of being touched by men. I developed an eating disorder. I began cutting myself. That torment was made worse by Hollywood. All but a precious few (my heroes) turned a blind eye. Most found it easier to accept the ambiguity, to say, “who can say what happened,” to pretend that nothing was wrong.(Farrow)” We see the same thing in both stories, most people want to avoid the conflict this subject brings and want to see only the best in people. In situations like these most children are scared of telling what happened to them like bone is, or speak up curiously such as Farrow. In Both these two situations the man committing the crime was not committed or rightfully punished. Glen disappeared and Woody Allen was let off the hook and his peers just turn their heads the other way. In todays world we don’t like to deal with conflict and when conflict does arise we try to come up with excuses for avoiding the issue. Child abuse is not something we can keep turning our heads away from. It needs to be dealt with seriously, and in a timely manner. If we don’t deal with the issue it will never be resolved.

http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/02/01/an-open-letter-from-dylan-farrow/