SAFE HAVEN “One in three women may suffer from abuse and violence in her lifetime” (Nicole Kidman). Abuse has an effect on women that cannot be put into words. It makes women feel lost and ashamed. In their confusion they hide in their abuse without moving forward. In Nicholas Sparks’ novel Safe Haven the author demonstrates the importance of overcoming obstacles when being faced with abuse. Overcoming obstacles is tricky but there are 3 important steps involved, going through hardships, building new relationships, and defeating fears. The main character, Katie is faced with many hardships. She is physically abused by her husband so she tries to escape and fears being found. After moving Katie finds it difficult to trust others but ends up …show more content…
She defeats her fear of her husband, Kevin when she becomes strong enough to fight back against him. Katie goes through the steps of overcoming her obstacles over the course of the novel, showing women that are being abused there is hope and proof love heals all wounds.
Katie’s hardships make her struggle with feeling normal because the feeling is so foreign to her. Katie feels alienated in her community because she believes her trials make her unlike anyone else. Her trials include being abused, escaping, and the constant fear of being found. Abuse impacts Katie’s life in a negative way but has an important role in overcoming her obstacles. Katie’s husband, Kevin beats and threatens her so one would question how she could fall in love with him in the first place. Katie falls in love with Kevin because, “In the beginning he was so sweet to her… he was
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It may be tricky and tough but to move forward it is necessary. Katie must defeat her fears but can’t stop replaying her past in her head. The main focus of fear is from her husband, Kevin, but when she becomes strong enough she fights back and defeats him. Trusting others is difficult for Katie, especially in a new town where she doesn’t know many people. Katie ends up meeting little girl, Kristen, Her neighbor, Jo, and a store owner, Alex. Physical abuse, trying to escape and the fear of being found causes Katie to face many hardships throughout the novel. In Nicholas Sparks’ novel Safe Haven the author demonstrates the importance of overcoming obstacles when being faced with abuse. Safe Haven is not just a novel and it’s not just fiction. “One in three women may suffer from abuse and violence in her lifetime” (Nicole Kidman). Overcoming obstacles and the process to overcoming those obstacles are very real. One in three women face these obstacles, meaning one in three women need help overcoming them. The mental impact abuse has on a woman’s mental health is astronomical and cannot be defeated alone. These woman need relationships and someone to lean on, they’re hurt and need comfort. Nicholas Sparks brings awareness to this cause and shows readers everywhere obstacles can be faced, it just takes going through hardships, forming new
Katie’s teacher, Mr. Dubey, puts a very high emphasis on the students at Katie’s school about how important school is. Because Katie starts to feel bad for using David to get into Harvard, his attitude toward the topic changes and he tells that she should be self-serving and not really care what people say and to not "ruin the rest of your life just because you feel a little guilty right now"(74). All of these conflicting messages on what Katie should be like, how she should treat others an...
Luckily, for Melinda she found the strength she needed in a special person and project to support and encourage her expression. So many victims of sexual assault are trapped inside their minds, kind of like the way this book reads. Like a series of letters, trapped from within someone else's mind. They are afraid to tell their story, for fear they will not be believed. But finding that one outlet that builds your inner strength gives you the courage to face your fears. The character transformation that Melinda made was remarkable. She started her freshman year out as an outsider and ended up feeling confident and rejuvenated.
Women haven’t always had the freedom that they have today. Women were abused physically, emotionally, and psychologically. Although women were perceived to act and present themselves in a certain way, some young women went against the cult of the true woman hood not only to be different, but to escape he physical, emotional, and psychological abuse that they will or have encountered. The containment they felts they overcame or made better for themselves. In novels, The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Path and Lucy, by Jamaica Kincaid both young women portrayed their stories, lives, and culture in many different ways, but with some of the same themes.
Herman, Judith Lewis. "Terror, Disconnection." Trauma and recovery. New York, N.Y.: BasicBooks, 1992. 31-72. Print.
Exposure to violence in the first years of life brings about helplessness and terror which can be attributed to the lack of protection received by the parent. The child can no longer trust their parent as a protector (Lieberman 2007). This lack of trust early in life can bring about serious problems later in life, as there is no resolution to the first psychosocial crisis, trust vs. mistrust. For these children exposed to domestic violence, the imaginary monsters that children perceive are not only symbolic representations or a dream. The monsters that children who witness domestic violence have to deal with carry the reflection of their parents. Children who witness domestic violence face a dilemma because the children’s parents are at their most frightening exactly when the child needs them the most. The security of the child is shatter...
Women will continue to suffer from domestic violence unless there is some sort of intervention to help them. When dealing with this population, it is essential to create a safe environment where the woman can talk freely about the abuse without any retaliation from the abuser. When someone comes into a therapeutic session, everyone deserves to be treated with respect and care. This in turn will create a sense of hope that a different type of life can be possible. Also, knowing that there is a support system can help the woman begin the process of change. Despite this, the process of leaving the abusive partner is slow (Warshaw, n.d.)
An abused woman is always faced with a number of different choices from which she may consider, with regards to seeking help or ending the relationship with a variety of alternatives, the woman knows each decision involves a variety of risks. Time after time, the common question arises, “why doesn’t she just leave?” This question can be answered by analyzing the psychological effects domestic abuse has on women. Many women are unable to cope with the emotional and psychological stress of domestic abuse and resort to violence and extre...
Kevin is an actor that becomes famous from his role as “the manny” on the major TV show called, The Manny. After quitting this role, he struggles to find a new job that he enjoys and feels comfortable with. Kevin struggles with making relationships work and last. Kate is very close with her brother Kevin, but she does not visit with her brother Randall because they live so far away. Randall struggles with raising his children and being African American. However, the most insecure character in the show is Kate. Kate faces many challenges in the show, but they all relate her obesity and insecurity with who she is as a person.
54% of women victims of serious sexual assault were assaulted by their partner or ex-partner (Stern 2010). 19% of women have experienced stalking since the age of 16 (Smith (Ed.), Coleman, Eder and Hall January 2011). These statistics help give a picture of the problem but do little to shed light on the solution. There are many programs and shelters offered to victims of domestic violence, Hill Country Cares is one of them. Hill Country Cares is a government funded women’s shelter better known s HCC. This is a place where victims of domestic violence are referred to from many sources. (i.e. local authorities after reporting a domestic violence incident). HCC is a safe place where victims receive many different types of assistance while their situation, as well as the painfully intimate details of their abuse, are kept entirely confidential.
... education. Katie firmly believes that schooling is her children’s only escape from poverty. She is not embarrassed that Francie’s knowledge surpasses her own, instead she pushes her daughter to work harder. Kaite’s constant pushing results in Francie’s acceptance into a college university. Katie Nolan is the heart and soul of the Nolan family and without her Francie would not grow up to be a hard working, intelligent young woman.
The job of a child welfare worker appears to be a demanding profession that promotes the child’s safety, but also strengthens the family organization around them in order to successfully raise the children. This child welfare workers work in the system known as the Child Protective Services whose initiative is to protect the overall welfare of the child. The short novel From the Eye of the Storm: the Experiences of a Child Welfare Worker by Cynthia Crosson-Tower demonstrates the skills necessary to deal with the practice of social work along with both its challenges and its happy moments. The novel consists of some of the cases involving Tower’s actual career in social work. In reading the book, I was able to experience some of the actual cases in which children dealt with physical and mental abuse from their families that caused them to end up within the system. Also, some of these children had issues in adapting to foster and adoptive families based on the issues they faced earlier in life. As we have learned earlier in the course, the violence that a child experiences early in life has an overall affect on the person they become as they grow into adulthood. When children deal with adverse childhood experiences, they are at a higher risk for abusing drugs and/or alcohol, increased likelihood of abusing their own child or spouse, higher rates of violent and nonviolent criminal behavior, along with several other issues throughout their lifespan.
From facilitating this safety plan, I have learned how to help women move through their options for safety. I have seen that women can be even more creative, strong, and empowered than I imagined possible. Most importantly, this assignment has given me the opportunity to truly consider and offer an alternative to a life of abuse that many women have never heard of before. I believe that the safety plan is important to both the woman seeking safety from her abusive relationship as well as the advocate having trouble seeing the victim as able to overcome the risks of intimate partner violence.
Without women’s shelters, millions of abused women would not have a “way out” of the danger they face each and every day. Based on the statistics, survival stories that are typical of victims helped at a shelter, and the beneficial resources provided at shelters, it is obvious that women’s shelters are very effective and necessary. It is crucial that these shelters receive adequate funding in order to give victims of domestic violence a hope for a better future.
Domestic violence is much more common than one may think. In fact, “a woman is beaten by her husband or partner every fifteen seconds in the United States” (Domestic Violence). This statistic doesn’t take into account how many women are verbally abused or women who are abused worldwide. It’s overwhelming to think how many women experience domestic violence each and everyday. More than likely, you have encountered a woman who is represented by this statistic. By the time physical abuse starts, a woman has already suffered from psychological abuse in a relationship. Women lose their self-esteem and dignity and often times feel alone. The immediate effects of abuse are heart-breaking when put into perspective. “‘I was very frightened of him, I had a great fear of him in my mind, it was like a beast had come, not a husband. I would shake if he came into the room. I would go to one side of the room and stay there and shake”’ (Fawcett, Featherstone, Hearn, and Toft 12). Many times, women are too afraid to report abuse to the police in fear of losing their husbands or making matters worse. Women sometimes are afraid of what...
Nicholas Sparks’ Safe Haven is a very suspenseful novel written from an anti-feminist perspective, in a way that portrays the belief that a woman cannot survive without a man; Sparks uses the main character of the novel, Katie, to be the female of interest in this area. Initially, Katie’s husband, Kevin, is an alcoholic, abusive policeman that she wishes to flee from. Once she finally gets up the courage to leave him, she runs away to a small town, Southport, on the opposite side of the country; since Kevin is employed as a law enforcement official, he has access to exclusive equipment and information and he is able to stalk and find her. Once Kevin finds her, he realizes that she has already fallen in love with another man, Alex, which infuriates