In the United States, nearly 800,000 children are reported to be missing every year (“Key Facts”). Approximately 40% of these children are either “killed or never recovered” (“When a child…”). Elizabeth Smart, a victim of abduction, was not part of this statistic. She was finally rescued and reunited with her family after nine months of being held captive. Ten years after her abduction, she released her memoir My Story. In her memoir, Elizabeth Smart stated she used her faith and strong love for her family to stay alive during these nine months. She stated that her return to her family could not have been possible without the strong determination and courage she had. Smart’s memoir My Story highlights that in the toughest conditions, determination …show more content…
For the next nine months, she was chained up, repeatedly raped, abused, and neglected. Mitchell used his perceived notions of Christianity and the concept of “God’s will” to justify his actions. Smart would go weeks without food or water. On many occasions, Mitchell would command her to drink alcohol, even though he knew it was against her religion. During her imprisonment, Elizabeth was subjected to horrific acts and mistreated by both Mitchell and Barzee. Regardless of what she was forced to undergo, Smart never let her captors’ abuse affect her will to live. Smart stayed resilient and kept herself determined to free herself from her …show more content…
The theme of this story is that one’s determination and courage can defy the impossible. Elizabeth’s recovery and revival have been dedicated to her faith and her remembrance of family. Smart stated she would pray to God in times of need. Her faith kept her alive during these harsh nine months. At her weakest moments, she would recognize the need to survive by acknowledging her family and friends. Smart’s astounding willpower dictated her situation, and it helped her realize that one day she would be no longer under her captor’s imprisonment. When a police officer finally recognized her, she stated, “For a moment, my world seemed to absolutely stop. I looked at him. He looked at me. I felt calm. I felt assured. Months of fear and pain seemed to melt before the sun. I felt a sweet assurance” (Smart 275). Due to her remarkable resilience against her captors, after nine cruel months, Smart was able to be returned to her
One Child’s Courage to Survive. “ A Child Called It ” Abstract This is one of the best, yet saddest books that I have ever read. There are so many bad things out there that are happening to good people. We just have no idea.
Martha Elizabeth shows her love and patience when she first goes to retrieve her drunken father from Ben Feltner’s house. She doesn’t ask Thad to get in the wagon and come home, she tenderly leads him to it and helps steady him as he climbs up. Margaret tells Andy that she remembers very clearly how gentle Martha Elizabeth was with her father that day. Thad felt it a relief “to climb into the wagon under the pressure of her hand on his arm”. (Berry, 21) This shows the power of Marth Elizabeth’s patient love, it calmed her father and he felt at rest in her presence.
A Stolen Life by Jaycee Lee Dugard is an autobiography recounting the chilling memories that make up the author’s past. She abducted when she was eleven years old by a man named Phillip Garrido with the help of his wife Nancy. “I was kept in a backyard and not allowed to say my own name,” (Dugard ix). She began her life relatively normally. She had a wonderful loving mother, a beautiful baby sister,, and some really good friends at school. Her outlook on life was bright until June 10th, 1991, the day of her abduction. The story was published a little while after her liberation from the backyard nightmare. She attended multiple therapy sessions to help her cope before she had the courage to share her amazing story. For example she says, “My growth has not been an overnight phenomenon…it has slowly and surely come about,” (D 261). She finally began to put the pieces of her life back together and decided to go a leap further and reach out to other families in similar situations. She has founded the J A Y C Foundation or Just Ask Yourself to Care. One of her goals was, amazingly, to ensure that other families have the help that they need. Another motive for writing the book may have also been to become a concrete form of closure for Miss Dugard and her family. It shows her amazing recovery while also retelling of all of the hardships she had to endure and overcome. She also writes the memoir in a very powerful and curious way. She writes with very simple language and sentence structures. This becomes a constant reminder for the reader that she was a very young girl when she was taken. She was stripped of the knowledge many people take for granted. She writes for her last level of education. She also describes all of the even...
She doesn't want to be the reason that her friends are tortured, so she can't name them. She has to let them torture her and she has to endue the unbelievable pain. When she can not imagine going on her faith saves her. Without thinking the words of "Hail Mary" come to her mind.
This Article is based on a Story about a 8-Year old girl named Relisha Rudd who went missing in 2014 after her mother allowed her to go with the janitor. Relisha rudd was living in a homeless shelter with her mother and always looked for a way out no matter what it was. She tried to stay after school even though they wouldn’t let her, she would beg for her family to come get her and she even went as far as to making friends with the 43 year old janitor and started calling him “ God Daddy “. The family trusted him and never felt they had a reason to doubt his generosity towards relisha because every time he would pick relisha up to either take her for ice cream or to go shopping he would always bring her back. Until one day he didn’t , and they
What would you do if one day, you were having regular conversations with your child and the next day, they are gone without a trace? In Linwood Barclay’s book Fear the Worst this happens to Tim Blake when his daughter, Sydney Blake disappears. As Tim retraces her steps, he discovers that the suburban Connecticut town he thought was ideal, is anything but and that leaves him to only fear the worst. The title of this book can tell a story based on Tim’s effort and feelings in the situation, correlations between his actions and a real parents reactions, and why the author would choose this title above all others.
America struggles to find equality, and by bystanding the stripping of its youth, continual prolonging is inevitable. Raising this nation’s children through nurturing and care is the first step to uplifting America as a whole. In 2012 alone, 1593 of America’s children died at the hands of child abuse, 70.3% of whom were younger than the age of three (Safe Horizon). In order to prevent further child abuse, the American government should address stricter child protection laws, psychological stability, and increase the recognition of those that have released their stories. Stories by Mary Ellen Wilson.
as Jennifer, a victim states, “I feel our childhood has been taken away from us and it has left a big hole in our lives.”
Elizabeth as a Woman of Independent Mind in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice In Jane Austen's novel 'Pride and Prejudice', Elizabeth Bennet is shown to be an opinionated, "headstrong" young woman. Her unconventional independence challenges the 19th century stereotype of high society women, who tended to conform to the expectations of society. Though her prejudiced judgement of others fails her sometimes, Elizabeth has "a lively, playful disposition, that" delights "in anything ridiculous". Although different in character to most women of her society, Elizabeth still manages to express much propriety in the presence of company.
Even though Mrs. Trottle was enraged by this decision, she had to accept it because it was her who kidnapped Ben and kept it a secret. One can make a connection between this story and the real world. In the real world. In this book, the character Mrs. Trottle learns that action have consequences, and that applies to people in the real world as
Chantal Fauconier Jane Austen, a writer in 19th Century England, wrote about what she knew; namely the societal norms of her era and class. In a time where men were given all the status and privileges, she wrote novels predominantly about women, their position in society, and the roles that they played. Since women were not entitled to property, they would often grow up with the goal of finding a suitable husband (Guidelines 1990:1). It is for this reason that people have criticised
Jane “Eyre” Jane Eyre, Jane means woman and an eyre is a circuit court held by itinerant royal justices in medieval England. Charlotte Bronte wants us to think about Jane’s romantic rebellious acts towards the Victorian era and the consequences of those acts. Jane rebels against science and the idea of spiritual beings or natural ideals not existing. Bronte argues the ideas of Romanticism true and Victorian ideals false or wrong. This causes the book to have many references to spiritual links.
In “Eveline” by James Joyce, the theme of power in relation to freedom and confinement is expressed. The protagonist of this short story, Eveline, is deeply confined in her heart. Her dying mother’s last wish to her daughter was, “to keep the home together as long as she could” (Joyce 5). Eveline out of love for her mother kept her promise, despite the hardship. Eveline’s own fears confine her as Frank, her husband-to-be, leaves leaves on the boat without her.
Most women in Mrs Mallard’s situation were expected to be upset at the news of her husbands death, and they would worry more about her heart trouble, since the news could worsen her condition. However, her reaction is very different. At first she gets emotional and cries in front of her sister and her husbands friend, Richard. A little after, Mrs. Mallard finally sees an opportunity of freedom from her husbands death. She is crying in her bedroom, but then she starts to think of the freedom that she now has in her hands. “When she abandoned herse...
Mrs. Mallard is an ill woman who is “afflicted with heart trouble” and had to be told very carefully by her sister and husband’s friend that her husband had died (1609). Her illness can be concluded to have been brought upon her by her marriage. She was under a great amount of stress from her unwillingness to be a part of the relationship. Before her marriage, she had a youthful glow, but now “there was a dull stare in her eyes” (1610). Being married to Mr. Mallard stifled the joy of life that she once had. When she realizes the implications of her husband’s death, she exclaims “Free! Body and soul free!” (1610). She feels as though a weight has been lifted off her shoulders and instead of grieving for him, she rejoices for herself. His death is seen as the beginn...