In Richard Rhodes’s article “The Battle for My Body,” which is an excerpt from his memoir A Hole in the World: An American Boyhood, Rhodes details the abuse he suffered at his stepmother’s hands after his father’s remarriage. Rhodes’s new “Aunt Anne” beat him and his brother, fed them spoiled foods or foods they disliked, and refused to allow them use of the bathroom at night. Her abuse of the boys escalated into what Rhodes describes as a “full scale assault,” and they suffered under her care until they were finally removed from the home. Yet Rhodes contends that his suffering did not end there, that he still suffers the effects of that abuse today.
Choose one of the following questions to answer in a five-paragraph essay.
Explore the three types of abuse Rhodes’s stepmother inflicted upon him and his brother: she beat them, she fed them spoiled foods or foods they disliked, and she refused to allow them use of the bathroom at night. What was her particular motivation behind each form of abuse and what was Rhodes’s reaction to each?
Rhodes invented various responses to Anne’s refusal to allow him to use the bathroom at night—he tried to hold in his urine, he tried to urinate out the window, and he tried to urinate into mason jars and hide them. Explore how he felt when executing each of these methods and analyze his level of success with each one.
Though Rhodes focuses on his stepmother’s behavior, his father’s behavior is, in some ways, worse. Explore how the father betrays his sons by marrying a woman of Anne’s character, by refusing to protect them from her abuse, and by giving up custody of the boys to remain in his marriage with Anne.
Explore three reasons why Rhodes may have written this essay—some of those reasons might be to reveal Anne’s malignant character to the wider world, to expose his father as a coward, and to comment on the long-term effects of child abuse on a victim.
Remember the opening paragraph of your essay must include name of the author, the title of the essay in quotation marks, a brief summary of the essay (1-2 sentences, no longer than that), the topic to be explored, and the points to be discussed. The body paragraphs must have strong topic sentences and use at least two quotes from the text in each paragraph to support your assertions. The conclusion must restate your topic and points and make a final comment. Remember, as always, to use an academic title.
For your first quote from the Rhodes article, you may use the author’s last name in your sentence and page number in parentheses after the quote: Rhodes comments that “xxx” (62). After that, as long as you cite consecutively from that same source, page number alone is enough: “xxxx” (64).
Works Cited
Rhodes, Richard. “The Battle for My Body.” Harper’s, July 1990, pp. 45-47.