In The Rubbish Tin Short Story

In the Rubbish Tin
What is this short story about?
This short story is about a family who is facing a big family problem which involves abuse and drugs. Some of these problems which I know happen in our society today. Roth (the father) and Ruth (the mother) have arguments almost every day and Roth always abuses Ruth. Sometimes, Roth will release all his anger on their poor daughter Phillipa by abusing her. When reading through the short story I picked up two main points which was family violence and abandonment. Family violence is clearly evident in the beginning of the story when Phillipa punches her doll “Chubby” and says “There, Chubby. That 's what you get. Just like what dad does." This clearly shows us that she learnt how to behave violently …show more content…
The character which I favored the most was Phillipa because she was sadly involved in her parents’ argument. “I’m that old. I’m one two three fivety-two.” We can tell that Apirana Taylor had used this language technique to show us how young and innocent Phillipa is. Even when she was sadly neglected by her parents, she kept a positive thought and made herself believe that her life was as good as every other child. For example, she tells her doll Chubby that dad is going to come home and they would eat fish ‘n’ chips and mum would get her a brand new bike. This is evident to how Phillipa acts in response to her barriers in life. She solves her problems by entering her own world of imagination and forgetting the kind of life she is living and issues she is facing. This is seen when Phillipa enters the rubbish tin, pulls down the lid above her and sits there quietly in the darkness listening to the thumps of the raindrops. “‘Ha ha, Chubby. Nobody knows we’re here. All the world’s a castle. I’m a fairy princess and you’re a magic bear.’ A lady in the Home read her a story about a magic princess and magic bear and now she and Chubby chased the magic ball of gold which, when caught, turned into a flying horse upon which they flew away to a city made of diamonds.” This shows us that she uses her imagination to escape from her troubles in life. The negative things impacting on her life disappears right away once she enters her world of fantasy. This also showed us that she had been in previous homes (foster care) for she remembers a nice lady reading her a story about a magic princes and a magic bear. I’m still puzzled about how Phillipa has been taken away from that kind mysterious lady and how she is now living with her actual parents who are clearly unfit. This makes me feel sad for Phillipa because she definitely doesn’t deserve to live