Running head: LITTLE GIRL LEAVING BOOK
Little Girl Leaving book
Author's Name
Institutional Affiliation
LITTLE GIRL LEAVING BOOK
Initial Post
After you complete the readings and watch the video, pick two questions to answers in your
initial post and reply thoughtfully to two classmates. write a paper addressing the following
prompts:
Discuss child abuse. What is the definition of abuse? Are there different types of abuse?
How many types of abuse did these children suffer?
Discuss mental instability, substance use and generational transmission. Why do you
think this girl’s father abused her? Why do you think her mother did not believe her?
Why do you think her brother behaved as he did?
Discuss abandonment. Should her mother or grandmother have done something? Was
her mother's inaction as injuring as the abuse perpetrated by her father?
Discuss survival and resiliency theory. What do you think her periods of
depersonalization and foggy thinking provided her? How did she utilize her strengths
and resilient traits to survive? What is the significance of her conception of God, Mary
and Jesus?
Why are the rates of children seen in Emergency Rooms with sexual abuse increasing?
How can public health initiatives to prevent child sexual abuse make an impact?
What psychiatric and substance use disorders are associated with histories of child
sexual abuse? How do the symptoms of dissociation develop?
Pasture Punishment
My head’s blowing up like a firecracker when Mommy pulls me off. She’s yelling at us not to
touch the electric. I barely hear her. I’m gagging from the pennies in my mouth. We’re in the
kitchen. I don’t remember walking here. Matty’s crying louder than me. Mommy’s shouting at us.
LITTLE GIRL LEAVING BOOK
She says we both grabbed the electric. My insides are big rope knots. I say softly, “Mommy, you
made us grab the fence.” Mommy’s pulling my arms to her. I know she’s going to spank me. No!
I don’t want to be spanked. I don’t deserve to be spanked. I pull back from her and she stops.
Mommy says she’ll just let Daddy do it. I stop. She tells me to sit on the brick bench and wait for
him. I say, “I’m really sorry, Mommy.” She says I’m too late. I’m not crying. I’m too scared. I wish
I could tell Daddy how Mommy told me to go to the pasture. How she lied and said she didn’t
say it. How she got mad when I said she did. How she pushed us and made us grab the electric
fence! She’s a liar, she’s a liar! She’s Mommy moonshine. I’ve been watching the front door
forever. I hear Daddy’s boots on the cementcement outside. He opens the front door, and
Mommy runs to him before he takes off his coat. She’s whispering in his ear. I hear hangers
move in the hall closet. She walks back into the kitchen. She doesn’t look at me. The closet
doors bang together and Daddy walks in. He yanks me up by my arm. He drops me and says,
“Strip and grab your ankles!” I bend to pull my undies and pants down. I almost tip over when I
grab my ankles. I hear Daddy’s belt getting unbuckled. I see Mommy’s feet and legs behind him.
She tells Daddy something about how bad I need this. “Go to your room,” Mommy says when
he’s done.I can’t sit on my bottom; it hurts too much. I know it will take at least two days to go
away. I remember from last time. I get on my tummy and slide my arms under my bed. I pull out
the big sheet of paper I put there. I look at the picture I was drawing and coloring for Mommy’s
classroom. It’s a picture of me. I wanted to be with her when she’s teaching. I wanted her to not
forget me. I tear it and tear it and tear it. I cry and yell in my head that I’m a stupid baby.
Blume, Lisa. Little Girl Leaving: A Novel Based on a True Story (p. 172). Illumine LLC. Kindle
Edition.=
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LITTLE GIRL LEAVING BOOK
Discuss child abuse. What is the definition of abuse? Are there different types of abuse?
How many types of abuse did these children suffer?
Simply put, child abuse is the physical, psychological, emotional and sexual maltreatment of a
child by a parent or caregiver. Child abuse may also include other complex sets of behaviours
such as neglect, child labour, child trafficking, and institutional abuse, among others. Child
abuse is a very major theme in Little girl leaving: A Novel Based On A True Story a book based
on a true story. The first form of child abuse in this particular novel is sexual abuse. By the time
she is aged seven years, Deidi has been severally sexually molested by her father, grandfather,
uncle and her father's friends. She sustains not only psychological damage but physical injuries
as well to the point of seeking medical service.
The second type of child abuse sustained by children in this novel is psychological and
emotional abuse. While Deidi's mother is fully aware that her child has been sexually molested
by her close family members, she offers no support nor solution, and this severely affects her
psychologically. Deidi's mother covers for the father sexual abuse and even made her feel
responsible for his behaviour at times (Blume, 2018). She is also forbidden from telling anyone
about her ordeal, which further worsens her psychological torture. The third type of abuse is
neglect. The child in this particular novel is not only being molested by her own parents but has
also been neglected. The author says "tears I don't want roll into my hair. Another tear rolls right
in my ear. Is Mommy coming back? She didn't say. She didn't tell me what to do next. She didn't
say good night. I'm cold"(Blume, 2018). This is a clear manifestation of child neglect because
any caring and responsible parent would not leave her sexually assaulted child unattended.
LITTLE GIRL LEAVING BOOK
Discuss abandonment. Should her mother or grandmother have done something? Was her
mother's inaction as injuring as the abuse perpetrated by her father?
Abandonment refers to when a parent, guardian or person in charge of child neglect and deserts
the child with no regard for his or her physical, psychological, safety or welfare (The United
Nations Children's Fund, 2019). Also, abandonment includes both physical abandonment as well
as an emotional abandonment. The child in Little Girl Leaving has suffered both forms of
abandonment. For instance, both Deidi's mother and grandmother have left Deidi to suffer sexual
abuse in the hands of her father, uncle and other people. Child sexual abuse is illegal in America
and other nations Both Deidi's mother and grandmother should have taken legal action against
their father immediately after they learned about the issue. Several public and private agencies
have been established to handle cases of child sexual abuse/assault, and they provide not only
legal advice but also emotional support for the victims. For this reason, both Deidi's mother and
grandmother ought to have liaised with one of these agencies to ensure that justice is served and
the victim receives the necessary medical and emotional care. Prnz (2015) says “the widespread
nature of parenting difficulties suggests the need to adopt a public health approach to optimize
reach and prevalence reduction.”
It is important to note that their inactions were an injuring as the abuse perpetrated by Deidi's
father and the rest. The reason for Deidi's prolonged abuse is due to the failure of her mother and
the other people around her to report and seek help from relevant authorities. What begins as
repeated sexual advances turn into rough and physical sexual assaults which left Deidi with
serious injuries on her body. Bringing the attention of the local authorities, NGO's and medical
care providers would have saved Deidi from abuse early before the problem worsened.
LITTLE GIRL LEAVING BOOK
According to Southall & MacDonald (2013) child maltreatment should be reported to the local
police as well as departments of child and family services for them to investigate a intervene
before the child is exposed to bigger risks such as rape, physical violence among others.
LITTLE GIRL LEAVING BOOK
References
Blume, L. (2018). Little girl leaving: A novel based on a true story.
Prinz, R. J. (2016). Parenting and family support within a broad child abuse prevention strategy:
Child maltreatment prevention can benefit from public health strategies.DChild abuse &
neglect,D51, 400.
Southall, D., & MacDonald, R. (2013). Protecting children from abuse: a neglected but crucial
priority for the International child health agenda.
The United Nations Children's Fund. (2019). Preventing 0 to 3 years old child abandonment
Technical handbook Modeling special social services in the karaganda oblast. Retrieved
from https://www.unicef.org/kazakhstan/media/1351/file/%D0%9F
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