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After witnessing her parents’ brutal deaths, Laila despaired, causing her to get stuck in an abusive relationship with Rasheed. In a violent, war-torn country, Laila’s parents are taken from her, literally turning her world upside down when the bomb “slammed into her from behind. It knocked her out of her sandals. Lifted her up. And now she was flying, twisting and rotating in the air, seeing the sky, then earth, then sky, then earth” (Hosseini 193-194). This bomb takes Laila’s parents from her, leaving her alone and vulnerable. Shortly after this traumatic event, Rasheed finds Laila and takes her in. After healing with the help of Rasheed and Miriam, Laila has no one to turn to, and realizes quickly she has no where to go at all. Rasheed takes advantage of her vulnerability and asks her to marry her, giving her “a home and a husband…These days, times being what they are, a woman needs a husband” (Hosseini 216). From the trauma to the sense of hopelessness to the void of a better place to go, Laila accepts Rasheed’s marriage offer. While at first, Rasheed treated her well, that treatment quickly faded. His kind gestures soon turned to off-handed brush offs. His kind words turned into downright abuse, physically and emotionally. Laila’s state of learned helplessness leads to her to “accommodate the abuser with compliance and avoidance to minimize abuse” (Lancer). This leads to a cycle of abuse, with Laila stuck, feeling powerless, displaying how traumatic situations lead to learned helplessness.

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In Antigone by Sophocles, the Choragus and Chorus, which represent the citizens of the pilotis, disagree with Creon’s choice to put Antigone towards death. The Chorus and Choragus both speak to Antigone of their disbelief in sentencing her to death, “But I can no longer stand in awe of this, Nor, seeing what I see, keep back my tears… Yet not unpraised, not without a kind of honor, you walk at last into the underworld; untouched by sickness, broken by no sword” (Sophocles 4: 1-3, 11-13). Not only was she loved by the people of Thebes, but she was doing her civic duty in their point of view. They did not understand Creon labeled Polyneices as a traitor of Thebes and therefore thought of Creon as a man putting his family to death for doing heroic duties. Later, Creon meets with Teiresias, where he speaks to Creon of the consequences of his actions, “You are sick, Creon? You are deathly sick! …The time is not far off when you shall pay back corpse for corpse, flesh of your own flesh” (Sophocles 5:58, 71-72). Creon knew the consequences of his actions would be drastic, yet he did not listen to the outcry of the gods. This foreshadowing made from Teiresias’s prophecy shows the disdain of not only the people of Thebes but the gods themselves. The pilotis greatly respected their rulers, but kept the gods above all else, “If a human community honors sworn oaths, interprets the law honestly, and treats strangers fairly, it is a just community-thus it flourishes, its people prospering and increasing… Similarly, individual humans who win the favor of one or more gods may receive special assistance and protection from them, while those who offend the gods are often persecuted by them” (Hansen). By losing the trust of the gods because of his actions, Creon is losing the trust of his own people he rules over. This disconnect between the people and their ruler helped lead to the Trojan War later with the vengeance of Sophocles’ (Dixon-Kennedy).

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Throughout the book, Kambili constantly tries to prove her worth to Papa and make him proud of her. When the family is gathered at the table for dinner, Kambili became jealous of (jaja/mama) when (he/she) (praised/ said smth) before she could. (“quote when that happened”). Kambili also repeatedly put Papa on a pedestal which put her at a position of being less than him. (“Quote here”). Papa regularly criticized his children on their actions, but he especially shamed Jaja for his participation in his faith. Papa was displeased with Jaja for not getting the eucharist at mass. Jaja was reprimanded which placed him underneath Papa and his standards.

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The families in the Joy Luck Club each contain immigrant mothers that struggled when they were growing up in their homeland, China. Lindo Jong was engaged to a boy when she was barely a few years old without the choice of decision, and when married was treated as nothing more than a maid by her immature husband’s family, made to only do chores around the house and being yelled at for not being pregnant with her mother-in-law’s grandson before she devised a plan to run away. She immigrated to the United States and was able to marry someone she loved, then having children. One of her children, her only daughter, was Waverly. When she was young, she developed a passion for chess which lead her into national competition at the age of only nine—but began to feel embarrassed from her mother’s praise and while walking with her after being appraised to a passerby by her mother she yelled, “Why do you always have to show me off? If you want to show off, then why don’t you learn how to play chess” (Tan). She ran away after saying this and when returning home was ignored by Lindo for her poor behavior which ashamed her mother. The act of Waverly’s remark caused her and her mother to form a tension between each other, words that would have gotten Lindo punished severely in the home of her first husband.

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In Khaled Hosseini’s novel A Thousand Splendid Suns, Rasheed beats and abuses his wives, knowing that they are too weak to fight back against him because they are women. Rasheed asserts his dominance over his first wife, Mariam, when, “His powerful hands clasped her jaw. He shoved two fingers into her mouth and pried it open, then forced the cold, hard pebbles into it… ‘Now chew.’ He said” (Hosseini 104). With Afghanistan’s economy going down and Rasheed giving so much grace to Mariam, he decides that he has had enough. Because he forces his wife to chew pebbles because they are comparable to the rice she cooks, she then understands the kind of relationship she has entered – an abusive one. Through this scenario, Rasheed foreshadows that if Mariam does not start cooking “real” food or acting like a “better” wife, worse things will happen to her. Not only does Rasheed exemplify his thoughts with his first wife but also with his second, Laila, when, “Without saying a word, he swung the belt at Laila … Laila touched her fingers to her temple, looked at the blood, looked at Rasheed, with astonishment” (Hosseini 345). Rasheed demonstrates how he does not only abuse one of his wives but both of them. He shows how he is not biased towards one or the other and wants to equally abuse women as it lines up with the culture the couples live in. Rasheed, again, conveys his abuse against women when “She was being dragged by the hair. She saw Aziza lifted, saw her sandals slip off, her tiny feet kicking” (Hosseini 268). With Aziza, Laila’s young child, being abused, it exhibits Rasheed’s raging abusive problem that contributes to little girls as well. Even though Aziza is so young and his child, Rasheed could care less about the age and the connection and still carries on with the abuse.

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Mariam becomes a subordinate and obedient wife because she was taught unconditional obedience as a child. As a child, Mariam experiences psychological abuse from her mother and neglect from her father (Hosseini). Her mother would often verbally abuse Mariam by calling her harmai, yelling at her, guilt-tripping her, or insulting her. Mariam’s mother would control her by scolding her whenever she disobeyed her and by drilling the idea of unfaltering obedience. Nana goes as far as to tell Mariam to endure whatever comes her way because it is the only skill that could help her as a woman. Although Mariam’s father did not truly positively contribute to Mariam’s childhood, he was never present and ignored her after she moved into his house. Mariam was rushed to marry her later abusive husband, Rasheed. By this time, Mariam had already understood to ensure her caregivers’ happiness, she was expected to act as an obedient child and wife.

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Opening sentence: Abuse is…Papa Eugene is disappointed in his daughter for not coming first in her class, so he abuses her- page 39. He went through neglect as a child- 47, he exaggerates his reaction by abusing her for taking a few minutes to get to the car- 51.

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The white supremacist attitude and western behaviors that Papa observes as a child causes him to imitate those attitudes and behaviors. Kambili, his daughter, remarks on this after noticing that “Papa [changes] his accent when he [speaks], sounding British, just as he [does] when he [speaks] to Father Benedict. He [is] gracious, in the eager-to-please way that he always [assumes] with the religious, especially with the white religious” (Adichie 46). The way Papa speaks in a British accent to those he deems of importance, proves that Papa associates both Caucasians and religious folk as being superior to Nigerian and lay people. His intent when speaking this way is to appear more civilized and well-mannered to the religious, especially to the white priests who did not speak in Igbo, Papa’s native language. These behaviors are fueled by the unconscious prejudices he obtained by observing the actions and words of the western missionaries as child. His prejudices are evident whenever Papa makes his family go to Father Benedict, their white parish priest, for confession rather than a Nigerian priest in Abba who speaks Igbo; Papa blames his decision on the assumption that “the parish priest in Abba [is] not spiritual enough” and declares that the problem with the Nigerian people is that “[their] priorities [are] wrong; [they care] too much about huge church buildings and mighty statues. You would never see white people doing that” (Adichie 104) …(more commentary).... Papa’s observation and imitation of the white missionaries exemplifies how the events in his childhood later affect his personality.

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In the novel Purple Hibiscus Papa uses emotional and physical abuse to hold more authority over his family. To assert himself as the authority figure of the family, Kambili explains how the love sips “were always too hot, always burned my tongue, and if lunch was something peppery, my raw tongue suffered” (Adichie 8). Papa manipulates his family to think he shares the little things he loves with the people he loves, when really, he uses the love sips to reinforce the pain he puts on his family. By conditioning his family to associate these acts with expressions of love, Papa blurs like lines between affection and coercion. The manipulation he causes traps his loved ones in a cycle of dependence on his validation and approval. Again, Kambili shows Papa’s physical abuse when she describes when “he lowered the kettle into the tub, titled it toward my feet. He poured the hot water on my feet, slowly, as if he were conducting an experiment and wanted to see what would happen (Adichie 194). Papa normalizes abusing his family, making it become “perpetrated over time in a consistent pattern of one person unfairly and unjustly, while placing blame on the one being abused” (Jantz). Through the fear, manipulation, and distortion of beliefs, the family stays silent under Papa’s abuse because and “the denial factor is significant” (Jantz). Papa sends a clear message to the family that disobedience causes extreme consequences and abuse. After breaking the Eucharistic fast, Kambili “puts the bowl down just as the belt lands on my back” (Adichie 102). Papa weaponizes his adherence to the Catholic doctrine, using it only to demand unwavering obedience from his family.  The repercussions of Kambili breaking the Eucharistic fast highlights Papa’s cycle of abuse and his willingness to use physical abuse to maintain order. By inflicting punishing, Papa reinforces his dominance and instills fear in his family, ensuring compliance through intimidation and coercion using rigid religious rituals.

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Sophocles chose to set the story right after a war, like he had witnessed in his life, because it was familiar. He was able to understand and convey the real emotions and concerns that may have been expressed in this situation. Creon was certainly under a lot of pressure even before the story took place, being in charge of foreign policy with the enemy and needing to strategize enough to, at the very least, choose military leaders that will lead their troops to victory. Sophocles knew this pressure as he had most likely witnessed it with real leaders after the Persian war and chose to incorporate this into Creon’s character, making him aggressive, stubborn, and emotionally biased against the opposing side. These character traits influenced Creon’s decree in the story that Polyneices mustn’t be buried and the harsh punishment that goes with this.

(It's a bit short but I am going to add quotes today)

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Throughout the novel, Purple Hibiscus, the character, Beatrice Achike, constantly fights the aftereffects of the abuse she faces from her husband. Her daughter, Kambili, reveals that she “heard the sounds. Swift, heavy thuds on my parents’ hand-carved bedroom door. I imagined the door had gotten stuck and Papa was trying to open it. If I imagined it hard enough, then it would be true” (Adichie 32-33). Later on that page, Jaja says, “There’s blood on the floor” (Adichie 33). The reader can make an inference that Papa physically harmed Mama. This event causes Mama to lose her baby, which most likely traumatizes her. Her being traumatized has a probability of causing a mental health illness to emerge because domestic abuse can have mental health effects such as major depressive disorder and PTSD (Understanding the impact of domestic violence | McLean Hospital). Furthermore, when she returns home after the accident, Kambili claims “her eyes were vacant, like the eyes of those mad people who wandered around the roadside garbage dumps in town, pulling grimy, torn canvas bags with their life fragments inside” (Adichie 34). This exhibits that the life in Mama’s eyes is slowly dying. Therefore, she begins to feel helpless. When people believe a situation is out of their control, a state of learned helplessness and vulnerability can occur (Myers).

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Mariam’s specific situation as a child of war leads her to a state of vulnerability to other issues like her mother’s suicide. From her time as a child, Mariam grew up surrounded by an unstable mother and a torn household, eventually leading to her mother’s suicide at the beginning of the novel (Hosseini 36). Because of Mariam’s traumatic witnessing of Nana’s death, her propensity for PTSD or depression is significantly increased. As a child who grew up surrounded by wartime dangers, that dramatically makes her more susceptible to mental health struggles (Source C) One of the second major times that Mariam’s trauma is exhibited is when Rasheed is angered. The narrator explains that "Mariam kneeled to the ground and tired to pick up the grains of rice and put them back on the plate, but her hands were shaking badly, and she had to wait for them to stop. Dread pressed down on her chest. She tried taking a few deep breaths. She caught her pale reflection in the darkened living-room window and looked away." In this quote, the reader sees that Mariam is no longer only susceptible to mental health issues, but is likely already suffering from some form of anxiety and depression which is being left untreated. As both a child in a warring country affected by her troubled household and a young woman in an abusive household, Mariam is affected mentally for the rest of her life.

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In Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus, Papa abuses his children multiple times for various reasons, but Aunty Ifeoma creates a loving environment for her children. Papa is seen by the people as a helpful and hardworking man who donates his money and time to the Church. What they fail to see is the manipulative father who takes his anger out his own children. Crying, he tells them, “This is what you do to yourself when you walk into sin. You burn your feet” (Adichie). Like many parents, he tries to blame the children for his own heartless actions resulting in both physical and emotional abuse (“Parenting”). In stark contrast, Aunty Ifeoma treats her children like respectable human beings, evident by the way Amaka expresses emotion: “Then I heard Amaka’s sobbing. It was loud and throaty; she laughed the way she cried. She has not learned the art of silent crying; she had not needed to” (Adichie). Kambili shows a hint of envy for the life that Amaka has. Aunty Ifeoma’s children feel the freedom to express themselves and grow in individuality, unlike Papa’s controlling demands for perfection. In addition, Papa, who is seen as a stricter Catholic than his sister, abuses his children in a way that no faithful Catholic should even think about. (adding a sentence connecting to theme when i come up with one)