Bastard Out of Carolina

One of the most complex and elaborate characters in Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison is Bone. Throughout the story Bone has to live a life where she thinks that she is the leading mystery of the trouble being caused. She has numerous unhappy situations and is in no way self-satisfied with herself. She doesn’t appreciate who she is physically. She constantly thinks she is the most homely and dull person who causes the most inconvenience in the family. This sense of selflessness is mainly due to the physical and sexual abuse brought upon by Daddy Glen, Bone’s stepfather. Unfortunately, the assaults were stretched out over a long period of time, leaving little chance for Bone to recover as an adult if any at all. I decided to take a more scientific approach to discussing Bone’s future as an adult. The most common disorders I feel Bone is likely to face are posttraumatic stress, cognitive distortions, emotional pain, and avoidance, an impaired sense of self and interpersonal difficulties.

After finishing some research I concluded that Bone would most likely be diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder. It entails enduring certain psychological symptoms that occur in reaction to a highly distressing, psychically disruptive event. A diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) requires the occurrence of a traumatic event, as well as frequent experiencing of the event through nightmares or intrusive thoughts, a numbing of general responsiveness to, or avoidance of, current events, and persistent symptoms of increased arousal, such as jumpiness, sleep disturbance, or poor concentration. All of these occurrences are a result from the sexual abuse Bone was forced to tolerate from Glen. Triggers of flashbacks include sexual stimuli or interactions, abusive behavior by other adults, disclosure of one's abuse experiences to others, and reading or seeing sexual or violent media depictions, all of which would more than likely be experienced throughout Bone’s adult life. Unfortunately all of these experiences are apart of life and in most cases can’t be avoided. Bone is obviously going to be exposed to such things, which could induce flashbacks.

Without question Bone would suffer from cognitive distortions. As a result from the traumatic events throughout her life with Glen her assumptions and self-perceptions typically reflect an overestimation of the a...

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...ren attempt suicide each year because they can‘t bear being abused any longer. Fortunately, Bone hasn’t reached that point yet. Depending on the circumstances ahead in the future, I see suicide as a last resort.

It is important to appreciate that these issues are very complex, and to be familiar with how abuse and neglect can affect various aspects of a person's life. Child abuse does not affect every person the same. The extremity of the abuse and different situations determine the effect. Some people could live on to become great people and do great things. They don’t look at the abuse as something negative but rather as something that made them strong and made them believe that they were better and could do better than the situation that they were in. Dealing with abuse after it is over is the toughest thing to handle, most people that could afford therapy go to it, but since most people can‘t afford it they try to deal with it the best they can. Although in most cases the child is removed from the home that the abuse is happening in, sometimes child abuse can slip by unnoticed and that can have severe consequences on the child as well as others.