She's Come Undone - Self-Destruction
In She's Come Undone Wally Lamb addresses the effects of personal trauma on one's self-image and the propensity of survivors to move towards self-destruction. Dolores believes that she is the cause of all of her tragedies, including her rape and her mother's death, and that the one true evil in her life is herself. She convinces herself that she deserves whatever pain she may receive along the course of life. With each new hardship, her guilt is increased. Her destruction begins with overeating and culminates in attempted suicide.
When Dolores is in eighth grade she is raped by Jack, one of her grandmother's tenants. She had always had a crush on Jack and allowed him to give her rides to and from school. She decides that he must have been encouraged by her actions and that therefore the rape is her fault.
Shortly after Dolores is raped, Jack's wife, Rita, has a miscarriage. Although Rita has had many miscarriages before, Dolores is sure that this one is a result of "the filthy thing that {she and Jack} had done" (Lamb 111). From then on, Dolores considers herself to be a "baby-killer" (112).
During her high school years, Dolores' only companions are her television and her junk food. She isolates herself from her peers. She eats constantly and becomes extremely overweight. She also takes up smoking. Although her doctor warns her that her lifestyle is putting her health in serious danger, she continues to binge and smoke. She does not feel that her life is worth worrying about (126).
Shortly after Dolores' high school graduation, Dolores' mother is killed when she is hit by a semi truck. Dolores blames herself and reasons that her mother's death must be Dolores' punishment for being a horrible daughter. She recalls what her mother said on the night of her death: "You've made me so ... tired" (135). She remembers how awful she was to her mother during the months before her death (138). She feels that she should have died instead of her mother. She bargains with God to bring her mother back and take her instead (138).
Dolores' self-destruction culminates in attempted suicide. She hires a taxi to take her to Cape Cod, where she plans to commit suicide amongst the beached whales.
By reviewing the state sales tax, and the income tax charged by thee three states, I can identify the type of tax that each one of them uses to acquire their revenue. Texas uses a regressive tax type, because it lacks of income tax revenue that divides each individual by brackets according to their incomes, while the sales tax charges everyone the same rate, regardless of their income, making this type of taxation a big problem for the poor. Utah also has a regressive tax because it charges a flat 5 percent from income Tax to e...
Her family life is depicted with contradictions of order and chaos, love and animosity, conventionality and avant-garde. Although the underlying story of her father’s dark secret was troubling, it lends itself to a better understanding of the family dynamics and what was normal for her family. The author doesn’t seem to suggest that her father’s behavior was acceptable or even tolerable. However, the ending of this excerpt leaves the reader with an undeniable sense that the author felt a connection to her father even if it wasn’t one that was desirable. This is best understood with her reaction to his suicide when she states, “But his absence resonated retroactively, echoing back through all the time I knew him. Maybe it was the converse of the way amputees feel pain in a missing limb.” (pg. 399)
Jimmy always tried to keep these memories out of his head, but somehow they always found a way to come back to haunt him. Jimmy sates, “My brain would start boiling forth so many memories that I had to put toilet paper in my ears to block out the voices. Other times, however, nothing helped and I would wake up sweating and frightened, feeling I had no chance of ever having a decent life” (116). In that quotation, Jimmy is trying to shed free of all the nightmares that always seem to haunt him, but Jimmy knows that he will never be fully capable of getting rid of this memoires. Furthermore, Macaron, Jimmy’s closest friend in prison, was the only true person that Jimmy trusted, for Macaron taught Jimmy how to survive the brutal prison life. However, Macaron couldn’t fight Jimmy’s fights for him, so when Jimmy was faced with a situation with another inmate, Jimmy had to back up himself. Jimmy then states, “I planted my feet firmly apart and hit him until he sprawled out on the concrete floor. A voice inside my head kept yelling the whole time I was hitting him that I was doing this for Theresa, whose father had raped her, and for my brother, who’d been raped by those two white guys” (123). In that quotation, the reader is shown just how brutal Jimmy Baca has become, for Jimmy brutally injured an inmate who
... sins, but she can’t take back what she did so she will forever have blood on her hands. This guilt and all of the lies she has told is giving her true trepidation and in the end she decided to end her terror by taking her life.
Through the terrifying events she experienced as a child and her parents’ miscommunications, she begins to realize how her mother tried to protect her from the mistakes that she made. Lena does not truly accept this at first, but ultimately discovers that she should strive to do better.
The Chinese have repeatedly tortured, imprisoned, and murdered Tibetans all for what they claim is national unity. While the oppression of the Tibetan people began in the 1950’s with the invasion of China, it continues just as strongly today. From religious oppression and unfair trials to the torture of nuns and monks, the Chinese abuse even the most reverent aspects of Tibetan culture. Political prisoners, whether they are monks, nuns or lay people, are tortured with utter disregard for human rights. Chinese laws have also been established to eradicate the Tibetan people entirely. Women often must endure forced abortions and sterilization due to Chinese birth policies. Through all of these crimes against humanity, China repeatedly commits acts of genocide as established by the United Nations.
Furthermore, Mary’s father was abusive in the family home to both Mary and her mother. A lifelong criminal, who was known to commit violent armed robberies, was not a good influence for Mary. Billy was often out of work, depending on earnings form Betty to sustain the house. It must be noted that there is some question if Billy is actually Mary’s father, given Betty’s profession; chances are great that Billy was just another victimizer in Mary’s lif...
tragedies that befell her. She is an example of a melancholic character that is not able to let go of her loss and therefore lets it t...
The Potala Palace has seen its fair share of controversy, as Tibet is a very controversial part of the world. When Communist China invaded Tibet in 1950 with over eighty thousand troops, massive protests were held at the palace. It has been estimated that about one million people have been killed since the Chinese occupation and the exile of Tibetan government officials. During this time, the treasures of Potala were stolen and priceless, irreplaceable historical documents and artifac...
She’s Come Undone is a story about a girl named Dolores Price. In this book, the author takes you through Dolores’ life, starting from age four until the age of forty. In this book, Dolores had a very rough life overall, from dealing with issues of her father leaving, being raped by her neighbor, having a mother who is mentally ill, and even her sexual orientation. As I read the book, I believed that she was doomed from the beginning and would never be able to overcome all of those tragedies completely. As a coping mechanism, Dolores sat in front of the television and ate her life away, and as she neared adulthood she was 250 pounds. Since Dolores stayed home and ate food for all of those years, it was easy for me to realize that she would have a hard time interacting and relating with other people as she entered college in Pennsylvania, which was indeed a major issue she faced along with her mother dying before she did so. With all the weight she carried, she attempted suicide. After this failed attempt, she was admitted to a mental hospital where she began to sort through all of the issues she faced during her life with t...
The madness and nothingness of the family gets the better of Shelly and she begins to doubt her own existence as well:
One of the main push factors is increasing amount of strikes caused by crisis in Athens. In December 2008, in Athens, riots broke out that quickly embraced and shook the whole of Europe . The reason was long growing discontent economic situation and the global economic crisis. Since spring 2010, there are almost continuous national strikes , riots and terrorist attacks in Greece.
In the novel Purple Hibiscus, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a character named Beatrice also known as Mama, has many dynamic traits. Mama is a religious woman who respects and highly prioritizes her family. Mama’s husband Eugene becomes more abusive toward her children and herself which causes her to lose her unborn baby. In Mama’s mind and heart, she knows she has to protect her children so she makes the decision to poison Eugene. Mama’s character changes throughout the book, as she first starts as a very quiet and caring character but as Eugene’s abusiveness increases, it develops her into becoming a perpetrator that caused her to be very depressed.
"The Rape of the Lock." The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Eds. Stephen Greenblatt et
In addition to denial, she reaches a stage of anger and indignance with herself and others in the small world that is her life. She can no longer perform the simplest tasks such as dressing herself or walking down the stairs. It irks her to need help, which is one of the reasons she can't stand Doris. She is also angry at the lack of emotional control as she perceives how "laden with self‑pity" (pg. 31) her voice sounds when arguing with Marvin in one instance. She cannot control how her "mouth speaks by itself, the words flowing from somewhere, some half hidden hurt" (pg. 68).