The Rake: Abuse

Even though i tend to view certain issues and themes as cliche, (such as family abuse)I can't help but laud and applaud the way this essay gave me such a personal and detailed look into family and spousal abuse. I for one have never suffered abuse of any sort from my parents, and I thank god every day for the wonderful and relatively serene upbringing I was privileged with. It's amazing how the two siblings in the story were placed in all the same situations I've been in growing up, minus the outright assault on the emotions and the spirit.

I decided to choose the scene where the sister refuses to eat the food before the opening night of the play. Even though I view this scene as the lesser of two evils, (The blood-eating part was pretty impressive and over-the-top, I gotta' admit) I connected with it quite well from experience, and since Wendy is stressing so much emphasis on the fact that when we read these essays, we're reading a part of ourselves, I think this scene would be a fitting choice. There have been many times when I was eating a meal right before a big event like a school music concert, and I somehow lacked any desire to eat whatsoever. As I read the part when the sister is denied the right to perform in the play, it was almost unfathomable to me. I'm so used to having parents that sympathize with my every word, especially when it comes to coping with common teenage problems like the stuff the girl is going through. Even if my parents had behaved similarly to the girl's parents, I wouldn't have let them exercise such cruel and strict control over me. I personally would have thrown an outright tantrum right then and there, and wouldn't regret it one bit, no matter how much grief they gave me.The mother is nothing more than a bully, and it's obvious that she's trying to vent her own feelings of estrangment on her kids, which is a very common and very selfish thing to do. I mean, tormenting a child to eat something is bad enough, but having the nerve to call the school and cancel her big night, right in front of the girl? She must still be traumatized to this day.