Domestic Abuse

Domestic Abuse occurs when a family member, partner or ex partner attempts to physically or psychologically dominate another. Domestic abuse often refers to violence between spouses, or spousal abuse but can also include cohabitants and non-married intimate partners. Domestic abuse occurs in all cultures; people of all races, ethnicities, religions, sexes and classes, and it can happen to both men and women.

The different signs of domestic abuse are: Intimidation, depression, stalking, absences from work, economic deprivation, bruises, broken extremities, lack of confidence, bullying, pessimistic, sadness, loneliness, paranoia and much more.

There are many types of abuse, there's physical, psychological, sexual, social, economic or financial and emotional.

As part of our curriculum we have read a lot of stories regarding abuse. But two of them highlight really clearly different types of abuse. One of them is the movie "The Secret Life of Bees". In this movie there's physical, psychological and mental abuse. There's physical abuse towards Lily, her mother and Rosaleen. Before having physical abuse there has to be psychological abuse, and in this movie we can observe the way the dad treats his daughter, with such indifference and anger. The action of the movie was in the 60's and that was a time of a lot of changes in the world. There was a constantly abuse toward the colored people and we can see that clearly in this movie.

Another reading that we did, was from Miguel Street, "George and the Pink House". There's a lot of abuse in this story but the main abuse was from George to his wife and kids. It was their daily bread, physically and emotionally this man abused his family. His wife even died of one of the beating he gave her. His son didn't want to live with him and his daughter felt disgust toward him.

Everyone is in charge of their own life and no one should want to take possession or control of the life of anyone else. It doesn't matter if it is our spouse or kids we should respect the freedom of everyone. We can take a role of guidance in our children's life and we should even teach them what is right and what is wrong. But once we teach them values we should trust that what we have done will flourish and they will live a life of truth.

No one should be afraid of talking about any sort of abuse they have been suffering. Nowadays there are a lot of organizations that help everyone in need of counseling or an exit from a life of abuse. Anyone can pass through a situation like that but not everyone has the courage to speak out, and those are the ones that survive.

http://www.loveisnotabuse.com/

Reaction: Second Part: "The Secret Life of Bees"

The second part is really emotional and all the truth comes out to the light. May, the twin sister that carries all the pain of her family, kills herself. Zack gets kidnapped and T. Ray finds were Lily is hiding. T. Ray is an abuser. Sometimes when we think of abuse we think that it only exists sexual abuse, but there are a lot of types of abuse. There's psychological, physical, social and sexual abuse. Her dad is constantly abusing her mentally and emotionally. He doesn't know how to demonstrate that he loves her. He carries the anger of her mother's runaway and he takes it out on her. In another hand Lily feels that nobody loves her and that she is the cause of all the horrible things happening around her.

It's a great movie with so many messages that I wouldn't finish if I tell them all. The one that touch me the most, was that we should never give up on anything. Life is hard, if it wasn't in wouldn't be life. But everything is possible if we believes in ourselves and if we fight for what we want. It doesn't matter the color of our skin or our ethnicity, what matters is who we are and what we believed in. No one stops ourselves except, we have the power to decide if we want to keep moving forward or if a problem will stop us.

Reaction: First part of : "The Secret Life of Bees"

It was a wonderful movie I can't wait to see the second part.

It's a movie recreated in the 60's and it's a about this girl Lily, that killed accidentally her mother when she was 3 with a gun. She is now all grown up and lives with her abusive dad. Which was the responsible for her mother's death. She was trying to run away from him, but he caught her and she never got out.

Now the girl is the one that runs away from her father after he doesn't do anything to defend their helper/maid which is black and got in a fight with some men. After a rough journey they find a place which she knows because one of her mother's thing had an image from that place. It was a house of 3 black women (August, May and June), who dedicate to make honey. And Lily lives there while she helps them with the honey. In the second part I will talk more about the problems and solution.

Reaction: "Miguel Street, George and the Pink House" by: V.S. Naipaul

It has a variety of emotions and it's a good story. Some things I had to read twice to understand but everything else is really simple and easy to infer.

The author tells the story of one of his neighbors in the famous Miguel Street. This really mean man, named George, beat his kids and wife. He had a house that was pink and really abandoned. His wife was a woman that by the time grew thinner and his daughter grew fatter. George didn't hurt his son as he grew older but instead he hit his wife and daughter even more. The boy that narrates the story is really sacred of George and his house. One day George's wife died and he was really sad and he looked comfort in drinking. He even got away and he didn't returned in a long time. When he came back, he came with an Indian woman that did all the chores that his wife use to do, but she got tired of him been so abusive and she left him. Short after that the boy saw that in the house they were a lot of women and Jeeps. George had made his house a whore house, where a lot of soldiers came and had a good time with one of the ladies. When other places more pretty and sophisticated opened he lost his clients. He died later alone and forgotten.

V.S. Naipaul has a great mind to develop great stories, this story has different messages and themes in it. But it's only one of the many short stories in this book. It's really sad that he had to die alone, but it was his fault for being so mean and corrupting. When we do bad stuff in a way we have to pay for them and no good deed goes unpunished. Sometimes we need to think about other people to their feelings and wishes. There's nothing more important than love, friends and family and to preserve all of those things we need to dedicate time, effort and love.

Reaction: "The Story of an Hour" by: Kate Chopin

Wow, really impressing and sad. It's a really shame that she couldn't live a little longer to see that he wasn't dead.

How curious that only the tought of being without the one you love kills you. She only heard that he was dead, she didn't saw him, she just knew. And that happiness and relief that she felt while in her room, I think that more than a tought of being free because she didn't want to be with him she knew that if she died she was going to be with him. A lot of emotions were felt at once that's why her heart stoped.

When he entered the house, I was in atonement. And when they said that she had died I was shocked. I thought that she was happy because he had died, but the I understood that she was sad because he died and happy because she was free to be with him eternally. She couldn't bear thinking of living her life without him.

Sometimes Love gives you life and sometimes it takes it away. But we have the power to choose which role Love will play in our lives. Love is great in every aspect and we need to cherish every moment of life and live it with Love.

Reaction: "The Storm" by: Kate Chopin

Wow, what a hot storm. It was really interesting reading such an essay from a woman (Kate) who looks so decent and modest. From what I could gather, the woman, Calixta was french and her partial lover M'sieur Alcée was french too.

Her husband and child Bibi, were passing a storm in a grocery store while she was at her house. She sees a neighbor, Alcée, and invites him to come in so he doesn't get wet, sick or killed. And while she is at the window all these emotions of anxiety for her husband and child and the nervousness that she feels for the storm make her vulnerable at the tempting sight of her past lover Alcéee. He is tempted too and they remember a long kiss that they shared a long time ago when neither of them were married, and I think they kissed. When the storm was over he left, they shared a smile and her husband and child enter the house. They taught she was going to be mad because they were really dirty but she was so happy for that moment of passion that she didn't even care.

The story is really short but it tells you directly what it wants to tell. I liked it because it was different, and sometimes a Storm is a situation of confusion but when it passes you see everything clearly and you learn more.