Dawn Weiner's Neglect In Welcome To The Doll House

Most of the time we perceive what others say about us to be believable. We retell those stories without even wondering if their stories even pertain to us. Sometimes we don’t comprehend what their motives are especially are loved ones. The reason sometimes we don’t comprehend because their motives are unappealing to our interest. From the autobiographies of Dawn Weiner, the main character from Welcome to the Dollhouse, and Thea Atwell from The Yonhalassee Riding Camp for Girls, they are affected by parental neglect during the time they are going through adolescent hormones.
Dawn Weiner’s autobiography is explained in the film, Welcome to the Dollhouse. Dawn has a negligent immediate family. At school, Dawn gets in trouble for spitting a

spitball into a teacher’s eye while trying to retaliate to the bullies. This resulted in Dawn getting sent to the principal’s office. In the principal’s office, Dawn tells the principal she was fighting back. After Dawn’s argument, her mother, Marj, asked her “Whoever told you to fight back, Dawn?” Then the principal asked Dawn, “If she has any social problems”, her mother rudely interrupts, saying, “Dawn is a loner who does not have any friends, case closed.” Even though Dawn claims she has a friend named Ralphie (Solondz). This is clearly parental neglect because we have parents, Marj, and Harvey, who are degrading their own daughter for being a loner when clearly Dawn has friends. Another time where negligence is shown is when her mother called a family meeting about seeing if Dawn would tear down her clubhouse to make room for their 20th anniversary. Dawn refused, which infuriated her mother. So her mother told Missy, her younger sister, and Mark, her older brother, to demolish the clubhouse. This is parental neglect because the mother and father are selfish and don’t care about Dawn’s feelings. The clubhouse was Dawn’s safe haven away from her neglectful family. After 20th anniversary party, they watched the VCR tape of the party. When it came to the scene of Dawn getting pushed into the kiddie pool by Missy, they are in awe of how gorgeous Missy is, not acknowledging Dawn, who is in the water. This clearly is neglect, because they would have punished Missy like they would have punished Dawn if she did that to her. This shows that the parents understand and love Mark and Missy more than they do Dawn and thinks of her an inconvenience to the family.
With constant neglect from her family, Dawn is also suffering from adolescent hormones. Dawn is going through junior high where hormones and confused emotions abound. Dawn is unpopular, unattractive seventh grader who has a shy domineer. She suffers from constant bullying by awful preteens and has to deal with unjust teachers. Dawn is a very soft spoken and a social outcast. Dawn searches for a relationship to save her from her neglectful family. One day Dawn asked a classmate her chances with a high school student named Steve, the classmate told her she has no chance because of her appearance. Dawn thinks by getting with Steve he could help save her from junior high because he was a survivor himself. Steve leaves his ID at Dawn’s house when he was being tutored for computer science by Mark. Dawn picks up the ID and makes a memorial devoted to him, chanting “Steve, hear me. You will fall in love with me. You will make love to me. You will take me away from this place.” By Dawn going through adolescences, she feels having a relationship with Steve could change everything, which in reality it does not.
Thea Atwell’s autobiography is told in the novel, The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls. Thea is going through the same problems Dawn faced, parental neglect during the time of having adolescent hormones. Thea has a twin brother named Sam. “My parents were expecting a large boy because my mother carried so low, so I was the surprise, not Sam. I was the child no one expected (Disclafani 67-68).” “When we were born, our family was cautious, especially of me (Disclafani 68).” Thea suffered parental neglect from the time she was born. Her parents did not even want her to begin with. The words child no one expected and cautious tells the reader that Thea definitely was not wanted. Also, her parents showed signs of neglect whenever Thea had an affair with her cousin, Georgie. They punished her by sending her away to North Carolina to go to The Yohnalossee Riding Camp for Girls. There should have been other methods of punishing her instead of sending her to a school that would turn her into a lady. They punished her but not her brother. Sam should have been punished a little bit for beating the crap out of Georgie. “I saw Sam raise the butt of his rifle and strike my cousin-his cousin, our cousin- on the shoulder and Georgie, stunned, fell backward, regain his balance and lunged at Sam (Disclafani 318).” “Sam had hurt our cousin with his gun, his gun that he had never before used against a living creature (Disclafani 320).” Even though Sam was protecting Thea, the parents still showed neglect towards Thea by sending her away, instead of talking to her personally and should have done some parenting.
Along with getting disowned by her family, she suffered from adolescent hormones.

Thea had a relationship with the headmaster at The Yonhallassee Riding Camp for Girls, Mr. Holmes. This secreted relationship occurred after Mrs. Holmes was away on a business trip collecting money for the camp. Mr. Holmes kindness towards Thea drew her to him. Thea at first perceived him as a father figure and later developed a crush on him, seeking to spend time with him by teaching his daughters how to ride. “Your daughters. I’d like to teach them, to ride (Disclafani 130).” Mr. Holmes made her feel that she is not as bad as she thinks. While with Mr. Holmes, Thea questioned him about what has happened to her. Mr. Holmes tells her that the reason why she was here was because her mother knew Mrs. Holmes. Mr. Holmes tells her she was traded, that her family kept Sam and sent Thea away. Thea saw the relationship with Mr. Holmes as a great thing. She felt comfortable around him because he told her the truth. With adolescent hormones, we have the notion of having sexual encounters with someone, especially Thea and Mr. Holmes. Thea saw the relationship with her and Mr. Holmes as a great thing because she felt like he was there to mentor

her.
What people say about us, if it is fact or fiction, we do find it believable. In this case, we find it believable that the stories that are told by Dawn and Thea are exactly believable. Dawn and Thea comprehended what their loved ones motives are, where sometimes we don’t know. Those particular motives where to neglect Dawn and Thea, because they did not want them in their lives. While neglect was a part of their lives, they suffered from adolescent hormones. These particular hormones caused them to want a relationship with an older person, in order to feel safe, loved, and wanted. These ladies turned towards a relationship in order to find a mentor because they did not have one.