The Little Prisoner (Pgs.47-90)

Summary
   In these pages, Jane describes the physical abuse Richard gave not only to her, but towards anyone that he encountered, and how people in their neighborhood hated him (pg.47). He loved to get into fights with anyone, and even at one point, their house was attacked with bricks from a group of men Richard had started a fight with (pg. 53). She also mentions how they were poor to buy the necessities of the house despite the fact that Richard and her mother spent their money fixing the house. She explained how she would have to go to neighbors and ask them for supplies they needed. When Jane was sent to do an errand for Richard, she was strictly told that she was to do the errands and couldn't stop to talk to friends. She also mentioned how, as her brothers got older, she had to do more duties toward them, but she didn't mind because she cared about them, while her mother and Richard would stay in bed most of the time. Richard would usually stay in bed when her mother got up and Jane would have to send him tea, where he took the opportunity to sexually harass her, and she was forced to play along with him (pg.51).
   Jane mentions how on few occassions her mom would decided to leave Richard, but she never got far because he always forced her to be by his side. She also said that Richard wanted the rest of them to have them fight people strangers as well, and how she was forced to beat up innocent people, whether they may have hurt her by accident or if they didn't do anything at all (pg 55). He even made them fight each other.
   To summarize the rest of the pages read, Jane explains how she had a best friend named Hayley, and she was shockingly allowed to go over her house. Once, she even got drunk, but her mom and Richard just laughed it off (pg. 76-78). She also recalls on how the sexual abuse continued, how she was first introduced to pornography, and how Richard pushed her grandfather away from her. The section ends when Jane woke up one night to see that Richard was abusing her mom and how when she tried to intervne, he came to attack her. Her mother went to defend her and stabbed him with a knife, and he went to the hospital. When he came back, he even apologized to Jane, something he had never done. Then, once, when Richard decided to get a girlfriend, she thought she would be free from him. Her mom even went out with a friend. But, he returned, and when he saw she had gone out, he was furious.

Quote
"'Janey,' he whispered as I pretended to be asleep. 'I'm really sorry'. He'd never apologized to me for anything before, but maybe he was only doing it now because he believed I was asleep and couldn't hear him"(Elliott 88).

Reaction
   In this section that was read, the author includes a lot more details than before. She seems to be recalling everything with more detail now. Is this section, the author also seems to interact with more people, rather than only talking about Richard, her mother and brothers, altough they are the people she's mostly with. The last thing the author includes in this section would be explaining how other people may have felt, while also including her own thoughts and feelings.
   Using the quote to connect it to the entire story, it is important to understand because it showed how Jane wasn't having hope in Richard changing. It also showed his somewhat weak side, although the reader isn't given enough information to know if he was sincere or if it was all an act. He had never apologized to her before, so it could be a turning point for him, although she truly believes he may not be sincere. The reader can assume Jane has stopped having hope for everything to end, and although it seems she may wish that deep down, she won't permit herself to believe he was changing.