Short Story The Day It Happened

What is domestic abuse? As defined by the dictionary it is acts of violence or abuse against a person living in one's household, especially a member of one's immediate family. This is the main theme in the short story I have recently read called “The day it Happened.”
When I first read the short story, “The Day it Happened” my first thoughts were of some drama you would see on television a since the story is written from the perspective of a young girl and it started off with her describing her hair washing routine. The author certainly gave it the soap opera type of feel with the way she described the characters. When I got to the heart of the story, however, I found that it is not as light as it first came off to be, it is a story about will, pride, humiliation, fear, anger, and loss, all the emotions people in abusive relationships find themselves going through. I understood this clearly when I read the lines “Dona Tona was muttering something we couldn’t hear up here on the second …show more content…
Yet they never once stepped in while she was being beaten or while he was screaming and yelling. Nobody ever called the police or intervened on her behalf in any type of way. That is because most people don’t know how to help, or they are worried it will make things worse. Kind of a “don’t poke the bear” mentality. However, most victims of abuse try to leave their abusers. Like Josie did in the story. "More than 80% have left five or more times (Today).” That is just one of the statistics that I have come across while doing research about domestic violence. Unfortunately, most women end up coming back due to lack of support and finances. This is how the cycle