Pain In Some Cases example essay topic

"Stolen" is a play which outlines the physical, emotional and mental results that occurred when aboriginal children were taken from their biological families. The play revolves around five main characters own personal experiences from the time they were obtained by welfare, and how this particular change affected them in the future. Each character has a different story to tell, yet all have a certain amount of pain attached to them. Anger, abuse and violence are some of the themes which are present in the novel.

It becomes quite obvious that as the novel progresses, the children who were "coloured" had no rights at all, this evidently resulted in small lives full of confusion and pain. Women who were of aboriginal blood found themselves in a vulnerable position when it came to rape, these women would do anything to stop the white men from raping them, even putting sand into their genitals in the hope that men would lose any sexual urges. Ruby was also subject to sexual abuse and harassment by older more dominant males who seemed to be unfamiliar with women's rights. Each one of the children would try to look presentable when the white families would come to choose a child to take home.

Even when they were quite aware that a household was abusive, some were so desperate to get out of the children's home that they were more than willing to leave for the weekend... even if it meant they would receive an item in return. e.g. a book or toy. Pain in some cases proved too much to handle, in Jimmy's situation he thought he had no reason left to live in a world that had lied to him and treated him as less than the soil we walk upon. It seemed that the best choice for him was to commit suicide and be with his beloved mother whom he had not seen for twenty six years, this way he would no longer be subject to unkind name calling or above all... Racism. The effects of taking away a mothers child are quite evident through Shirley's constant struggle to locate her children. Often the emotional impact proved to be overwhelming and quite hard to contain.

An example of this is on page thirty five, Shirley becomes very unstable and protective of her grand daughter, she is afraid that if she lets go of her that she will never see her again. Shirley could not bear the pain of loosing another child to welfare as she knows the pain of loosing children to welfare, and being a stolen child herself. Sometimes there was a fine line between what was better for a child, to be I a materialistic environment or to be in a natural culture based environment. In Anne's case, she was unsure of what she really wanted to be and where she felt more at home. Children who were taken from their parents at a young age had little memory of their backgrounds, thus making it harder to turn back and leave foster parents who had been seen as parents to them for a long time. It was also clear that no matter what the child's decision may be they would always have both biological and foster parents in their hearts for making them the people they have become.

At the time this play was written, it seemed to be quite clear that being Aboriginal was not a positive thing; many were treated as though they were insignificant and born without feelings. The hatred and abuse shown toward them by authority figures was constant. Sometimes when everything seemed to tumble down upon them, Sandy would tell a story to explain why certain things happened and the children would be calm, the stories gave them that little bit of hope to keep faith in what they were and who they would become.