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The Second Trial
Enter the life of 13 year old Danny McMillan who finds himself in the middle of a battle that his young mind can't understand. His mom is the victim of domestic abuse and the family has to hide and change their names after a trial that convicts his father of this abuse. Written with the understanding of the Canadian legal justice system, the author brings awareness to the White Ribbon Campaign and the Canadian Women's Foundation who work to increase public awareness, assist victims of domestic abuse and help foster societal conditions that are conducive towards reducing such violence.
Discussion questions:
- Even though Danny understands why his family has to leave, he is still very angry with this mom for breaking up the family and forcing them to change their lives, right down to their names. Even though Mom was not responsible for the violence, Danny still punishes her. Did you learn anything about yourself with this situation with Danny and his family?
- The Second Trial suggests the hopeful possibility that domestic violence victims and others affected can move on and create new lives for themselves. Agree or disagree?
I did not learn anything about myself with this situation with Danny and his family. I think maybe I did not learn anything about myself thoug is that Ive never been put in a situation even remotly close to this, which im very fortunate for.
ReplyDeleteI very much agree that victims and people affected by domestic violence can move on and create new lives for themselves with lots of willpower courage and support. Its not like they casued it so why couldn't they, they have a right not to live with that for the rest of their life.
- Amber Raivio
I learned we are lucky to have our loving families because many people around us don't have the choice to live in the type of society that we do. Also, many families that are being abused have the ability to hide their personal feelings and lives from everyone around them.
ReplyDeleteYes, the book does suggest this and as a community we should all do our best to help these types of families to live at the level that they should be living in with love, respect, and the ability to be happy and not have to deal with cruelty, disrespect and comments that just put you down. it is good to help these types of families and we should give them the chance to live happily but as the novel states, Danny's mom and sister both were abused and treated violently physically and verbally but they have the ability to hide these problems to the people around them that are oblivious to the topic of violence in general. There are many families in this state, but 75% of them in general won't say or do anything about it, and than decide to live with their problems as their own battle and not get anyone else involved.
I learned that life is really hard for some people and how grateful i am for the life I've been given.I feel bad for those that have a life that is full of abuse and neglect. Hopefully this book will reach out to many people that are going through the same problems and help them out and keep them strong and keep them moving forward.
ReplyDeleteI didn't really learn anything about myself because I have never had to deal with a situation like Danny's and I am grateful for that. I think that Danny may have blamed his mother because he had a stronger relationship with his father and, even though he knew that his father had abused his mother, he loved him so much that he didn't want it to be true. Also, he was moved to a new environment where he was not allowed to reveal any portion of his past life, so he could not really discuss and try to deal with his anger about the situation. Due to this, and the fact that his father was absent, he shifted the blame to his mother because he needed someone to be angry at so that he could express his feelings. I think that it is possible for domestic violence victims to move on with their life if they seek the help that they need. However, many do not, and continue to live with the problem because, in my opinion, they probably have feelings for the person abusing them and do not want to cause trouble.
ReplyDelete