Article (Seeing the truth...or not)

http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/news/story/0,4136,139785,00.html?

The article I am discussing today is related to a social issue that is probably close to everyone’s hearts, that of family. This article reminded me of the classic tale of Cinderella as in this article; the boy’s stepmother tortured the boy by beating him with a ruler and plastic bat. Not only that, she stabbed his eyes, ears and throat with chopsticks when he refused to eat his food after chemotherapy to cure his Hodgkin’s Disease.

This issue must be discussed, as everyone should have the right to feel safe in his or her own home and not suffer such injuries from one’s own home, and especially not from someone who should care for him. As this is a newspaper article, the author uses a direct yet informative style to deliver this shocking news.

At first glance, the stepmother seems to be at fault and may be even mentally deranged as she bit her husband and stab her own step-son. Moreover this article seems to be slightly biased as it uses words such as “apparently”, “allegedly” and “reportedly” to describe the mother’s actions which gives these actions a higher tone of wickedness. However, when you think deeper, you realize that the stepmother is not totally at fault for her actions.

From this article, we cannot know what the family situation at that household is like but we can guess that this family is not a happy one. Firstly, the stepmother is just a stepmother; it is more difficult for her to control her stepson than the biological mother. Secondly, the stepmother marriage may not be a happy one as can be inferred by her anger towards her husband when she bit his finger. Thus, we must look from her perspective and stand in her shoes. Perhaps due to the various pressures she has to face, she has to vent her anger somewhere. Thus, perhaps at that day, when her stepson refused to eat his food, her patience finally snapped and did such a horrendous act to her stepson.

If we can look from her perspective, we can guess that what has happened is not a murderous action done deliberately but rather a human action done erroneously. This is a human action that every one of us may do when faced with such uncertainties in marriage and irritating stepsons who refused to eat his food, but just that the magnitude and victim of her action is too much for us to bear, thus evoking the pity in us for the stepson and anger towards the stepmother.

Thus, not only must we pity the boy who is a victim of his stepmother’s fury, but also the stepmother herself who has to face such pressure from her marriage and the family she inherited that she became mentally deranged for a moment and did not think logically that her stepson refused to eat due to the treatment.

Lastly, I apologize if I had wrongly analyzed the stepmother’s mindset, as I am not a parent yet.