Parent-Child Relationship in The Killing Gift

Parent-Child Relationship in The Killing Gift by Bari Wood

Among many relationships that people found themselves in, parent child relationship is the most important one. However, the findings indicate that the relationship between a parent and a child is greatly affected by, the unique attributes of the child, compared to that of the parent; how stable the marriage of the parent is; parent’s self-confidence, experience and age. According to Lian And Han (112) the parent child relationship comprises the integration of expectations, feelings, behaviors and behaviors that are unique to a certain parent as well as to a certain child. Therefore, it is clear that the relationship between the two is largely founded on the characteristics of both the parents and the child. This essay uses the article “Dimension” and the novel “The killing Gift” by Bari Wood to expound more on the parent-child relationship: PLAGIARIZED SAMPLE: ORDER YOUR PAPER NOW

In the novel “Killing the Gift” the doubtful relationship between Jennifer and her mother finds its origin from the accident of Kate her mother. Jennifer’s accident caused her to go through an X-Ray process, the act the affected the unborn child, Jennifer. Once she was born, Jennifer but after sometime later the child felt something was not right. Additionally, no one wanted to be around Jennifer. Her mother was very sure and nervous about it but she could not let Jennifer know the truth. This is well exhibited in the quotes;

“Because I’m strange, because there’s something wrong with me. But I don’t know what. Mommy, do you?”

She’d believe whatever Kate told her and she waited for an answer. Her face was in shadow, the sun in her mother’s eyes. Kate was going to lie—right into the trusting face—she had never lied to her daughter before.

“Jennifer, there’s nothing wrong with you and the other children are not frightened—so there’s no reason Harold Kearney should want to hurt you.”

Could Jennifer’s mother had told her the reality of what had contributed to abnormalities in her body and that she (Jennifer) should accept herself as she is may be Jennifer could have accepted her life and live a positive life. One the Jennifer’s she truly believes in her mother and she is very sure that her mother could not lie to her. The parent-Child bonding lasts for the rest of the child’s life (Ayoub, Vallotton and Mastergeorge 584). However, the observation of her mother’s frustration in face, Jennifer becomes aware that Kate was going to lie to her. In the Jennifer and Kate scenario it is evidently that the shoddy relationship has set in. First, because of the Jennifer’s physical characteristics and second because her mother seems to lie to her. The poor mother child relationship consequences are well portrayed in the later life of the child (Bryan 142). Similarly, this happens to Jennifer. The novel goes further and indicate the growing years were a bit a challenge for the poor Jennifer until she grew into adult. The scary life of Jennifer seems to have been contributed by his mother while at the tender age.

In the article “Dimension” by Alice Munro the fiction story revolves around Doree. The same as Jennifer, Doree later life seems to be experienced by a lot of problems. According the older women whom she worked with, Doree was young, beautiful and decent and she should have been doing a white collar job rather than a blue collar job (Munro). However, nobody new or had a clue what had happened to Doree. The nightmares of Doree can be traced back at her school days when her mother was sick. This was the time when her mother had been admitted in the hospital. At tender age of seven years the mother had no time to create a robust relationship with her daughter even though she (Doree) used to visit her (mother) after school. The was in contrast to (LUO 90) who argued that lack of parental care leads to negative behavior adoption among the children.  It was during these visits when Doree encountered Dr. Lloyd. Despite, that Lloyd was almost the age of her mother he got attracted to Doree.  The things got worse when Doree’s mother passed and she went to live with Lloyd. Instead taking a parental responsibility Lloyd turned Doree to his wife and they were blessed with three kids: PLAGIARIZED SAMPLE: ORDER YOUR PAPER NOW

Now, looking at the fictional story in this article it well portrayed that Doree lacked child parent relationship. Her tender age relationship with Lloyd can be attributed to the lack of the parent-child relationship. As the article, Doree was not guilty lying to her mother’s friend that she was going to meet another woman yet she was going to meet Lloyd. Even though, Doreen and Lloyd later got married their marriage was not successful. Upon analyzing both the Jennifer’s and Doreen’s situation, this essay concludes that a poor, negative, unhealthy and unsustainable parental-child relationship contributes to severe repercussions at the later age of the child.  This is supported by (McIntyre and Abbeduto 358) who noted the future behavior of child is largely attributable to the tender age behavior.

Works Cited

Ayoub, C, C D Vallotton and A M Mastergeorge. “Developmental pathways to integrated social skills.” The roles of parenting and early intervention. Child Development (2011): 583-600. Document.

Bryan, A. A. ” Enhancing parent-child interaction with a prenatal couple intervention. MCN.” The American Journal of Maternal/Child Nursing (2002): 139-145. Document.

Lian , Tam Cai and Yeoh Si Han . “Parental Bonding And Parent-Child Relationship Among Tertiary Students .” Sunway Academic Journal 5 (2011): 112-124. Document.

LUO, Lingyun. “Investigation and Analysis of Parent-Child Relationship in Adolescence .” Journal of Cambridge Studies (2005): 87-98. Document.

McIntyre, L L and L Abbeduto. ” Parent training for young children with developmental disabilities: Randomized controlled trial.” American Journal on Mental Retardation (2008): 356-368. Document.

Munro, Alice. Dimension. 5 June 2006. Web. 7 December 2016.