2 or 3...

In class we were asked to analyze some photographs of Dorothy Allison’s, so for my blog I choose to analysis the photograph on page 87, the one with Dorothy, her longtime partner, her son, and the family dog. In class we briefly discussed that Dorothy seemed to be much happier with her life now then when she was growing up. Clearly Dorothy did not have the best childhood, she was abused physically, mentally, and even sexually. Though family members surrounded Dorothy throughout her life, she still seemed to be alone. She never really had support form her family. Her mother knew that her stepfather was abusing her, but chooses not say anything, or gets her out of that situation. Even her own aunt would put her down, for example, she writes “My aunt turned me around and smoothed my hair down, looked me in the eye, smiled, and shook her head, “lucky you’re smart.” For me who recently became an aunt, I could never imagine saying something like that to my niece, it is so hurtful and can be very damaging to a child. However what I found interesting is that in most of her childhood pictures Dorothy seemed very happy, happy as a young child can be. Though at a young age most children are awkward and “growing into themselves” but for Dorothy she was hiding something much deeper. However Dorothy started to grow up she began to figure herself out and tried to better understand the “whys” and “how comes” that she went through all those years. As she began to figure her life out, she would meet her lifelong partner in the process, that she did not clearly see coming.  So that brings me to the photograph on page 87, I think the birth of Dorothy’s son helped her change and helped her to move on with her life. I also think that the birth of her son, finally allowed her to tell her story, maybe he gave her a sense of confidence and strength to tell her story and making her able to move forward with her new life. I think that once she began to tell her story she felt a huge weight lifted off her shoulders, or maybe she told her story to share with her son one day. Whatever the reason being I felt that once she wrote this particular book, she felt relieve of anger, pain, and frustration after all these years.