Summary
The Little Prisoner by Jane Elliott portrays the childhood and adulthood of the author. She explains how she's been tortured and mistreated in the hands of her stepfather, Richard. In the first two or so chapters, she introduces how she remembers the occurence of events as faint blur, because she doesn't always remember everything in chronological order. She introduces the readers to her life in foster homes with her brother Jimmy, and the experiences in each foster home(pgs 3-6). She then goes on to mention how her brother was taken into adoption and how she had to go back to live with her mother and stepfather (pgs 8-9). From there on she proceeds to mention how Richard would pull her hair, punch her and make her look bad in front of her mother so she would purposely (pgs 13, 19-20), and how he would also sexually harass her when her mother wasn't home for the night (pgs 21-22, 44-46).
Quote
"When I was about seven I decided that I couldn't face going home any more. The time had come to run away. I used to daydream about escaping all the time, but when it actually came to doing it things seemed to become more complicated"(Elliott 27).
Reaction
The author seems to write in a manner where she appears to always second guess what she does. It is like she knows what she wants to do, but she is too terrified of the outcome if she gets caught. She speaks going back through time, letting the vivid memories come to her, although she mentioned how she doesn't like recalling things because the memories come at the wrong times. But, using this quote to connect it to the whole story, it is important to understand because the readers can connect with the fear the author feels in saying she wants to run away. Readers get a glimpse of the actual emotions the author feels, fearing for her life every day that passes by. Readers can practically feel like they are in this precise moment with the author, thinking of a mental plan, the desire and need to escape being very big. It helps understand the message the author is trying to portray, telling readers that even if this escape were to happen and it fails, it is just the start of a lot more attempted escapes, or the start for her living an even more tormented life.
