Let me start of by saying that we are ending this semester with a great book. This book has kept me interested since day one. The only think that I dont like about this book is the truth behind it. Im going to be a teacher in the future and I would hate to anything to happen to mys students and seems like Bone has been through the wrost a child could go through as a child. It seems like Bones Inoocent has been taken from her. She was raped and beaten by a guy that she calls "Daddy Glen". I always wondered why she caled him Daddy Glen especially after all he did to her. What was more disturbing is that her aunt and her mother suspect of it happening and they still dont do anything about it. I hate that her mother lets this horrible man beat her and she doest do anything about it. Annie knows that this man beats her child and she still thinks that this man loves bone and he doesnt mean to do anything to her.
A real disturbing part in the story was when Bone masturbate to the fact that someone might catch Glen beating her. At first I was really shocked because she is so young she shouldnt have to think of anything like that she should be playing with dolls not masturbating. But it all makes sence she does this because its confort for her. She does it because it pleases he to know that some day someone can catch Glen beating her and look at him like a monster. Another thing that bothered me was the fact that she still would have forgave him for him doing such horrific things to her. while I read this book I always wondered why Glen picke Bone and not Reese. I think that he had some type of obsession with her. he was sick in the head. It seems like the mother Annie was even more messed up because she kept this looser around her daughter.
This book is very similiar to the play "A Street Car named Desire" because Bone and Stella were raped and there family members kind of just ignored it. They put there nasty husbands before there family members to me thats just insane.
7 comments:
It is really horrible what happened in the book. The child abuse is just really horrible and hard to get through.
I was also disturbed that Bone called him Daddy Glen. I think it was part of her plan for survival. By calling him Glen, it would have been fuel for him to beat her more, for lack of respect. But I think in Bone's mind, calling him just 'Daddy' would mean that she has accepted him as her father. But with the added 'Glen' it is her way of saying that he is not her father.
I think that the scene you are referring to with Bone masturbating was an extremely disturbing representation of the effects of Glen’s abuse. The fact that Bone is thinking about this is disturbing to begin with, but it makes it even more disturbing that she is masturbating to it. It shows how disconnected she is with her sexuality because of what Glen has done to her. She has become a very disturbed child, and this is very evident by this scene.
Taysha I also I'm becoming a teacher and we have the job of watching for signs of abuse so that we can help our students and unfortunatly we probably will have students with these problems.
The reason Bone still calls Glen Daddy Glen is because first of all it was probably make him more anger if she didn't and second of all because she has been told to call him this almost from day one.
I think that the whole idea of mastubration being in this book is a really touchy subject. I mean not just once do we see it like you said, but it's brought up quite a few times. Now like you said a girl at her age should be playing with dolls. She shouldn't be experiencing things like this untill she's older. I think though because her virginity was taken from her, she kind of had to grow up fast with her hormones going craszy and this really is the only way to comfort her in many different ways. I think that the fact that Reese starts to do it may be a matter of that Glen did get to her. I think that all of a sudden Reese is this charachter just like Bone, experiencing her sexuality and what not. I think it would make sense that Glen got to her too. But i just think the book is really fasciniating with all the topics it touches on from child abuse, to childhood sexuality.
I agree, this has been my favorite book we have read this entire semester. I actually enjoy reading it. I only wish we had spent a little less time on other things so that we didn't have to rush through such a good book.
I also thought it was very interesting that Bone always calls Glen "Daddy Glen." I wonder if that is what Reese calls him as well.
I was a little shocked when reading this part of the book as well. I am a psychology major, so I was well aware of the fact that children are very sexual, but I never would have thought I would find a scene like this in a book. I think that part of the reason Bone masturbates to thinking of the abuse is because she doesn't understand that her masturbating is a sexual act, she just relates it to the way the abuse started in the car.
While this is a horrible story about abuse, there definitely are worse incidents. I don't know if you have read this book, but A Child Called It is an autobiographical account of a very severe and prolonged case of child abuse that took place in California. If you haven’t read it, you can check it out on this site: http://www.bookbrowse.com/reviews/index.cfm?book_number=218 . It calls to attention the need for teachers to be aware of signs of abuse, as you were saying, because sometimes teachers may be the only advocates students have. Bone probably didn’t have the advantage of her teachers’ protection because she moved around so much.
You also mentioned Bone masturbating to Glen’s beatings, which was an element of the book that struck me too. In a class about child and adolescent development, I learned that children as young as Bone was when she started masturbating typically do not have such sexual thoughts or behaviors. They may be curious about the opposite sex’s bodies but normally are not sexual unless they have been abused by adults who can expose them to more sexual notions. Her warped thoughts during masturbation definitely seem to be a result of the abuse; Bone now ties violence with sex.
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