Freaky Green Eyes Domestic violence

Domestic violence

The 15 year old protagonist Franky Pierson, in Joyce Carlo Oates ”Freaky Green Eyes” knows that her father. Famous sportscaster Reid Pierson has a bad temper. She also knows that her parents do not get along and that violence more than often erupts. Through her descriptions of domestic violence, it can be said that Oates shows us how it can break a family apart.

An example of where the breaking of the family starts is in chapter 3 during the “Thunder-scene” and the consequences of this particular happening. During the thunder scene Reid seems to be very angry with Franky’s mom, Krista. He is yelling at her and I get the feeling that he might be abusing her.  The quote that supports this is. "Something is going to happen. The worst you can think...Muffled, through the walls. A raised voice. Dad's voice. Controlled and reasonable.... The second voice, the weaker voice....I feel scorn for it. (47)” He does this after Krista disobeys him by going to Santa Barbra and missing out on his “Good News Celebration Dinner”. Reading this you can clearly understand that Reid is a person that likes and has the urge to be in control. And I believe that this trait of him is the main reason why the Pierson family breaks apart.

The fact that Reid abuses Franky and Samantha plays a big role in the braking of the family. Even though the stay quite about it until the last police interrogations. The quotes that support Reid’s abuses against his daughters are the following. ‘’She kept on like this, whining, childish, pulling at Dad’s arm until he lost patience and took hold of her wrist and twisted it, and Samantha whimpered like an injured puppy, and dropped to one knee…” (p. 100-101). And for Franky the quote comes from when she had released the animals at the Blount’s lodge. “And finally Dad lost control, and grabbed hold om my arm and shook, shook, shook me so hard my teeth rattled in my head p. 125)..” I think it’s a quite natural reaction for a family to break apart when the domestic violence goes so far that the children become victims of it.

And for me the biggest breaking point of the family most be when Reid literally breaks the family apart by killing Krista. “Even after he´d plead guilty to murdering Krista Conner and Mero Okawa… (p. 325).” This is the straw that breaks the camel´s back. Of course when everyone would find out that Reid killed Krista the family would break apart. And you get confirmation of the families breaking when Franky visits Reid in prison and he says: “You’re no daughter of mine (336).”