Anna's Mother Angela example essay topic

In the expository text, Anna's Story the author Bronwyn Donaughy uses Family and close friends to portray the great loss of the fifteen year old teenager Anna Wood. Anna Wood died on the 22nd of October 1995, the day after she attended a rave party with friends and took the deadly drug ecstasy. The text deals with drug abuse as well as strong family values, friendship and teen identity. All of these issues are strongly suggested by Donaughy and put to the audience through quotes made by her family and close friends Donaughy also shows her own opinion on drug abuse, friendship, parental guidance and the blame factor. Being Australian the Wood family has particularly strong family values.

Anna's mother Angela shows how shows evidence in her chapter of the book. Angela mentions how her and Tony met in a bar ("I'm afraid to say ") (page 4), this shows the reader that Angela is almost ashamed that they had to meat around alcohol, this is seen against traditional Australian family values. Alcohol is seen as a stepping stone towards drugs, which was linked to Anna's death. Trust and honesty is also a big issue in this chapter, Angela remembers when Anna asked if she could go to a rave, Angela agreed but said that if Anna wanted to go she would have to lie to her father, by doing this Angela brakes a family bond and violates a very important family value honesty. Donaughy brings this up later on in the book very sneakily its almost as if she puts the blame on Angela for taking the first step towards leading Anna down the path she eventually took. Maybe if Angela had had told Anna she couldn't go and stood strong with her husband then Anna would have thought twice before she lied on that night and instead of going into a coma she could have been lying asleep at home.

Anna was seen as a good daughter a loving sister and a honest and caring friend, although Anna's mum did say that there were a difference between what Anna would do and what Anna would say: "I couldn't bear for anything to happen to you if you were with someone who took drugs", "she replied: "mum do you think that I'm that stupid?" . But what she didn't tell her mum was that she smoked pot, had one trip, tries speed and took half and ecstasy tablet a month before she passed away. Anna's mum seemed to think that there was nothing secret in the between the Wood family, she seemed shocked at the idea that Anna was stupid enough to even try drugs. Without noticing any of the warning signs Anna's mother foolishly believed the story that Anna's friends gave her, that Anna had got her drink spiked. Angela seemed to see no wrong in Anna wish was half the problem from the start. One of the most important family values is that of guidance from parents to child.

It was mentioned in both the parents's tories that they found it hard to punish Anna, and they always forgave her without the correct punishment. She got a lot of leeway from her parents and she got away with things completely a lot of the time Donaughy's opinions were such that she reckoned that on the night that Anna lied to her parents and went off partying she would of thought that she would get away with it with out to much trouble. Kathie's mum boasts of her parental guidance towards Kathie-"Kathie would have gone to that party if she could. But we are all very close and as soon as she asked if she could "sleep over a friends house" that night, I knew she was hiding something".

This shows Shame towards Angela. It was brought up in the other articles that I've read that those teens who are un-noticed by there parents and who weren't punished when needed to, these were the kids that usually went off the rails Anna was no exception Tony remembers a sad event that happened when they lived in England: "I was really busy in the pub and Anna hurt herself and I couldn't do anything about it, I couldn't cuddle her. I thought this isn't right, I was angry with myself because I hadn't put my little girl first" (25). I also understood for the book that Alice was more of the golden girl, more of the sensible one, Anna was left with the bad reports but the great social life and this isn't credit half as much as a good school student. It seemed to me that she Anna was pushed into the background and her sweat face kept he out of the punishment that she should have been receiving.

Anna's friends showed their real friendship when they watched Anna die with a lie. They had told Anna's family that at go-carting someone had spiked Anna's drink. Even though one of the supposed best friends was lying down dieing they didn't want to tell her parents the truth because they though they might get into trouble. They didn't announce the truth until Anna was pronounced brain dead.

Donaughy clearly shows both sides of Anna's personality and shows pressure on Anna around her friends and what she got up to. Donoughy seems to portray her with a split personality in Anna during the book The author seems to feel blame is due towards the friends of Anna for their input into her death. It is a big issue throughout your adolescents to have someone close to you that u can trust and feel safe around to Anna this was her friends. Who is to blame, this is a big issue in the book as well as other articles that I've read. Its is narrowed down to poor health education by school, parents, the health profession, educators, governments and the media.

The blame was mainly left with schools poor education or lack of. Donoughy shows in the chapter "just for parents" that it is the responsibility of the parents to talk to their children about drugs and how they can affect you. She stresses it with a checklist and guideline on how to talk with them about this issue. Anna didn't know the dangers of taking this deadly drug until it was too late, her friends didn't realize that that moment that they didn't speak up about what really happened was the difference between life and death, and the person that sold her that drug didn't know that the next day she would be named a murderer.