Melody Graulich Essay

Melody Graulich portrays another side of domestic violence that no one has really touched on. Graulich writes about her mother who had to grow up in a household where the father hits the wife. The author provides several other literary evidence about the women’s history of domestic violence in the West. The author starts the essay off with a reminiscence details about her childhood with her beloved grandfather. Graulich describes her grandfather to be an American hero in her mind. After her grandfather passes, the author learns that he used to hit her grandmother (Graulich). Her mother told Graulich different scenes of domestic violence that she had to witness while growing up. Her mother described how she felt powerless, embarrassed and responsible (Graulich). After learning that her grandfather use abuse her grandmother, Graulich had a hard time confronting and interacting with her grandmother. In Graulich’s mind she had to process this shocking discovery about her beloved grandfather. She felt like she had to defend her grandfather and excuse his actions (Graulich). It appears that Graulich had a hard
time digesting this piece of information about her grandfather because it goes against the type of man she knew while growing up. Until a few decades ago, domestic violence wasn’t a subject to be discussed in public because it was a taboo topic. The saying “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree” comes to mind while reading some of Graulich’s essay.
Graulich quotes another author in her essay a few times to support her points about domestic violence in the West. The other author writes about her father and his abuse towards his wives (Sandoz). Sandoz tells how her mother was teaching her to be afraid of men women because men are abusive. Graulich supports this idea by using evidence from another literary piece about sons learning domestic violence from their fathers. A child’s mind and behavior is shaped by the environment it grows up in. If a son grows up watching his father beat his mother everyday then the son will think it’s acceptable to hit women (Graulich). It’s the same deal with mothers and daughters, Sandoz in her essay writes about how her mother expected her to be powerless against
men. After the time came where domestic violence was acceptable to talk about in public, Graulich realized that most of the time the daughters were the ones to break the silence about the domestic violence they’ve witness growing up and write about it. With that in mind, Graulich decided to get another prospective on domestic violence starting with her mother. The author focused on the effects of violence in the mother’s life and how watching the mother become a victim of a male’s abuse affects the daughter’s identification with and resistance to her mother’s life (Graulich). Most of the time when people read about domestic violence essays they think the story is about the man and they forgot about the person telling the story. Graulich admits that she used her mother’s secrets about her grandfather to further understand her grandfather when she should have focused on her mother and how the abuse affected her life (Graulich). A story always has more sides to the story than you think. Graulich uses her essay to describe her mother’s role in domestic violence. The author realizes that her mother shared those secrets to show a woman’s strengths that make a woman a treasure. People’s childhood often shapes who they are and Graulich’s mother used it to her advantage to not become a victim.