In Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes the title character, Sarah Byrnes, is abused by her father. I kept wondering as I was reading why Sarah Byrnes, like every abused kid in books I’ve read, refuses to get help. I guess I don’t understand what they’re thinking- why they think silence will make things better. If it were me, I think I’d probably tell someone right away- maybe because I’m a trusting person. But I suppose I can’t say the situation wouldn’t be entirely different. What did Sarah think was going to happen? She knew it would be difficult to survive on her own and on the other hand her father wouldn’t be afraid to kill her. Sarah Byrnes goes on for so long without a plan that I wonder why she wouldn’t succumb to child protection services- people who would do everything in their power to keep her safe. Also in Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes, when Eric gets threats from Mr. Byrnes he doesn’t report them to the police either. But I suppose that fear is a powerful thing- it can keep people from thinking logically, and to be honest that’s the only explanation I can muster up. I applaud Eric for, to be blunt, betraying his best friend’s trust to help her. He almost gave up his life to help his best friend- I don’t think I’m anywhere close to being that brave. I never cease to be astounded when someone puts so much on the line for a friend or another loved one.
Also in Sarah Byrnes there’s a great deal of focus on things like religion, morals, and abortion. These imaginary but thought provoking exchanges were those that I could relate to. Like Eric, I’m unsure about religion- I’m pretty sure I believe in God, but it’s kind of complicated. Sure, I have morals, but I’m not reading the bible everyday. I’m definitely nothing close to Mark Brittain- he irritated me like all the God-fearing-SUPER-CHRISTIANS do. I find it incredibly wrong for a person to say “If you do this you’ll be damned to hell in the afterlife” because isn’t that God’s decision? What infuriated me with Mark Brittain is that he made exceptions for himself when he judged others so harshly. I was also entertained with this concept- so many others are easier to forgive others than they do themselves but Mark is the opposite. What I have to say to this is that if you’re going to have strict morals that you judge others on then you should follow them yourself. As for the whole debate about abortion I’m split- Sarah Byrnes makes a good argument in the book about if you knew you that the child would be abused or hurt that it would be unfair to bring that baby into the world, but it’s unfair to not give that baby a chance to live either. I’m hoping that I won’t have to consider having an abortion so I wouldn’t have to consider this personally- but I guess we should let women have the choice. Sure, they should take responsibility for their actions- but raising a child is a difficult punishment for one mistake.
A big relief for me in this story is that Eric doesn’t fall in love with Sarah Byrnes and they all live happily ever after. For a moment a little thought moseyed across my brain and I thought this book would play out like your typical high school movie- the guy’s in love with the unattainable girl only to find out in the end that his best friend was in love with him all along. Then the two of them ride off into the sunset while the dream girl is left in the dust. Honestly, if that happened I would have had to pull my hair out and feed it to a litter of kittens. What surprised me was Jody’s secret that broke up her and Mark (well, I was somewhat surprised because for some reason I thought it said that Jody got an abortion before.) It put a new perspective on all of the arguments about abortion and really made me think even more.
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4 comments:
You made some very interesting points and it was fun to read about what you thought. I totally agree with you that Sarah should have told someone. Then I started to think that she might not have because they mentioned that he father made her not tell anybody and she was probably scared that he would hurt her more if she did. I also agree with you about admiring Eric for risking his life for a friend. Even though I am not sure that I would be brave enough to do that, like you said, I do think that when the time came I would make my self muster up the courage to save the people I love. One question I do have was if you think that child protection services would have been able to help as fast as Eric did? There are so many cases of child abuse all around the world it might take a while for them to get to Sarah’s Case, and by the time that they do her dad would probably find out that they told someone and hurt her even more.
I think that if the case was reported, Child Protection Services would likely put her in safer custody until further notice. And there isn't just one "Child Protection Service". I think there's a Child Safety department for every state. Their job is to assure that children are safe as soon as possible.
That may be so but I believe that even though child services would have removed her from the unsafe environment that she was in I don’t believe that they could keep her father away from her. If he could break into Eric’s car I am sure that he could break into the place that Sarah is staying. After all, he is a creepy creeper. :)
That's true, and the main thing is that Sarah didn't get hurt. (Disregarding the fact that she isn't a real human being)
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