Negativity on the lives of the Dionne Quintuplets Hailey Drenters On May 28th, 1934 a miracle happened. The first ever quintuplets were born as they were the first to survive birth. They were five girls named Annette, Yvonne, Cecile, Emilie, and Marie. They were sometimes known as “miracle babies”. To this day only Annette and Cecile are living. An examination of how the girls were exploited , unhappy, and mistreated will prove that the impact on their lives was negative. The Dionne Quintuplets’ journey as they were exploited is proof that the impact on their lives was negative. Annette, Yvonne, Cecile, Emile, and Marie were exploited by their doctors and the Ontario government within days of their birth. …show more content…
Dafoe. The girls were no longer allowed to visit any family. A couple months after Dr. Dafoe had full custody of the Dionne Quintuplets, the government realised there was massive public interest in the sisters and proceeded to create a tourist industry around them. “When they were born . . . North Bay was just a fishing and hunting lodge. And today, there’s a four-lane highway that gets you there, and that highway was built specifically so that tourists could come down and visit the sisters.”[4] The girls were made wards of the Provincial Crown, and were not allowed to visit any family until they reached the age of 18. Overall, this information on the exploited part of the Dionne Quintuplets’ life proves that the impact on their lives was negative . The Dionne Quintuplets’ childhood of unhappiness proves that the impact on their lives was negative . The girls had a playground that was surrounded with glass. It allowed visitors to view them three times a day. From the inside, the glass was covered with mesh screens to hide the viewers from the girls, but the girls could see the shadows of the visitors all the time. “It wasn’t good for the children to be like that, to be shown like that, playing naturally and knowing that other people were looking,”[5] Cécile said. Every morning they got dressed together in a big bathroom, had glasses of orange juice and there vitamins,
Mary Hoge had gone into labor Sunday 23rd of July 1972 giving birth to her fifth child, Robert Hoge. When Robert Hoge was born, his own mother didn’t want him. Robert’s mother Mary thought he was too ugly, that he was, in appearance, a monstrous baby. Robert was born with a tumor the size of a tennis ball right in the middle of his face and with short twisted legs. Robert was born in Australia, where he would have to undergo numerous operations that carried very high risk in order to try and live a “normal” life.
Quanah Parker was born in 1845, the exact date of his birth is not known due to the times and the lack of recording dates like birthdays back then. Also the exact place of his birth is unknown, it is thought to be somewhere along the Texas-Oklahoma border, but there are conflicting reports. Quanah himself said that he was born on Elk Creek south of the Wichita Mountains, but a marker by Cedar Lake in Gaines County, Texas says otherwise. There are still other places where he was supposedly born like Wichita Falls, Texas. “Though the date of his birth is recorded variously at 1845 and 1852, there is no mystery regarding his parentage. His mother was the celebrated captive of a Comanche raid on Parker's Fort (1836) and convert to the Indian way of life. His father
An influential American printmaker and painter as she was known for impressionist style in the 1880s, which reflected her ideas of the modern women and created artwork that displayed the maternal embrace between women and children; Mary Cassatt was truly the renowned artist in the 19th century. Cassatt exhibited her work regularly in Pennsylvania where she was born and raised in 1844. However, she spent most of her life in France where she was discovered by her mentor Edgar Degas who was the very person that gave her the opportunity that soon made one of the only American female Impressionist in Paris. An exhibition of Japanese woodblock Cassatt attends in Paris inspired her as she took upon creating a piece called, “Maternal Caress” (1890-91), a print of mother captured in a tender moment where she caress her child in an experimental dry-point etching by the same artist who never bared a child her entire life. Cassatt began to specialize in the portrayal of children with mother and was considered to be one of the greatest interpreters in the late 1800s.
The novel “The Orphan Train” written by Christina Baker Kline is a fictional portrayal of a young girl who migrated to America from Ireland, and found herself orphaned at the age of ten in New York City in the year 1929. The book tells the story of the pain and anguish she suffered, and the happiness she would later find. From the mid 1850’s through the early 1900’s there was an surge of European immigrants just like Niamh and her family who came to America in search of a better life. Unfortunately, most were not as prosperous as they had hoped to be. As a result, many poverty-stricken children were left orphaned, abandoned, and homeless. They roamed the streets looking for food, money, and refuge by any means necessary. Since there
Watkins, S.A. (1990). The Mary Ellen myth: Correcting child welfare history. Social Work, 35(6), pp. 500-503.
In 1938 modern novelist and physician, Dr. William Carlos Williams produces a novel “Jean Beicke” which may well be synonymous with his life, and his disposition with the society that emerged in the early twentieth century. The novel not only confers on the deprived state some of the children entering the pediatric hospital the narrator happened to work at. It also delves into the disposition the narrator (possibly other pediatricians) possesses over the neglectful nature of the child’s parents. Surely, this must reflect William’s worldview from a post-world-war standpoint, where the new generations of children are helplessly starving to the point of death. This degradation in human empathy may have been a direct result of either World War 2 or the great depression that followed. Although it does reflect a sense of hope and tenacity as the narrator attempts to overcome his/her prejudices and try to save the life of a young malnourished girl, Jean.
At one point it is said “She put latches and bolts on the refrigerator and cupboard doors to keep the children out between meals” (Skloot 2010, 111). This shows the malnutrition that the children endured which may have led to poor performances in school and poor decisions in life. According to the Orphan Nutrition Website, poor nutrition can lead to cognitive delays including “learning disabilities, poor social skills, inadequate problem solving, and impaired language development as well as a decrease in the body’s immune system” (Orphan Nutrition 2016). These implications could have impacted the poor health and knowledge of the Lacks family. In addition to the hunger, the children were forced to perform hard physical labor in the tobacco fields with no breaks (Skloot 2010, 112). This increased their risk for malnutrition even more as their bodies worked with few calories. It also was most likely a contributing factor to the many health issues within the family. Deborah suffered from high blood pressure, insomnia, acid reflex, and various other health issues. Skloot writes, “Deborah took an average of 14 pills a day […]” (Skloot 2010,
The Great American Orphan Abduction is a compelling story that exploits economic, religious, racial, and gender issues in the early 20th century. It follows the story of forty Irish-Catholic orphans from New York being adopted by Mexicans in a small Arizona mining town. These children were considered ulcers to society in the city and were mostly children whose parents were too poor to care for them. The Foundling had visions of a better future for the children out in Arizona. Orphan trains transported the children West and were facilitated by their Catholic nun caretakers. Both racial and gender factors led to posses kidnapping the children from their new homes. The Anglo townspeople did not like the idea of white children being placed in non-white homes. The Arizona Territorial Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Anglos in the trial that followed. Their reasoning was that allowing white children to be adopted by Mexicans was equal to child abuse. Gordon’s analysis shows that women were not as passive in public affairs as some would assume. Mexican women adopted the children, and Anglo women had a hand in the kidnapping and mob activity. Gordon spotlights lessons showing that women had a role in separating racial boundaries. The tragedy of the
Author Christine Mitchell’s “When Living is a Fate Worse Than Death” told the story of a girl Haitian named Charlotte. Charlotte was born with her brain partially positioned outside of her cranium which had to be removed or she would have not survived. Her skull had to be concealed by a wrap in order not to cause further damage. Charlotte was born with less brain cells which allowed her only to breath and not feel much of the pain. Charlotte’s parents thought that the doctor’s in Haiti did not know what was best for their daughter. The doctors in Haiti thought Charlotte should not be resuscitated, undergo anymore horrible treatments and die peacefully. Charlotte’s parents were not happy with the doctor’s guidelines and thought the United States medical care would have better technology and could save their daughter. Charlotte’s parents bought her a doll which
... and left the city of Regina in ruins. The workers went back in failure with none of them better off. All these events caused the society in Canada to suffer and make it into the history books as ‘great’.
Sadly, the children had no choice but to work for very little pay. Their mothers and fathers made so little money in the factory system that they couldn’t afford to let their children enjoy their childhood: “Other working children were indentured—their parents sold their labor to the mill owner for a period of years. Others lived with their families and worked for wages as adults did, for long hours and under hard conditions” (Cleland). The child had no other choice, but to work for these big businesses.
Examples of the hardships the Pyncheon family faced include the poverty, which had stricken their family and Clifford’s imprisonment at the hands of Judge
The Children’s Aid Society in 1854 developed the Orphan Train program a predecessor to foster care. Charles Loring Brace believed that this would give children the chance of a good life by giving them the opportunity to live with “morally standing farm families”(Warren,
“Every now and again I see in the newspapers the report of a man or woman who has put to death a mentally defective child. My heart goes out to such a one. I understand the love and despair which prompted the act.” Pearl Buck understood that act, for her daughter Carol was mentally retarded. She shares her experiences of raising a child who would never grow to be self sufficient. Pearl shares her thoughts and feelings throughout the diagnostic process in a time when little was known about mental disabilities. She travelled from China to America to seek medical attention for her daughter just to get the news that Carol would never be a ‘normal’ child. The doctors could not help this family.
Rugh, Robert and Landrum B. Shettles. Conception to Birth: The Drama of Life's Beginnings. New York: Harper and Row, 1971.