Child Abuse In The Elegance Of The Hedgehog

In the United States alone, “more than five children die every day as a result of abuse” (Tennyson Center for Children). That’s almost 2,ooo child deaths a year. However, many abused children do live to adulthood; and their life doesn’t suddenly fix itself. These children are scarred physically and emotionally. Without ever experiencing love or safety, they become quite lost when they began to live on their own. More often than not, the trauma that is experience in childhood handicaps them and destroys the possibility of a promising future. In The Elegance of the Hedgehog, the main character Renee was abused as a child. Many of the struggles she had to endure as a child impacted her actions and thoughts throughout the story. To gain further insight into child abuse, I read and analyzed two data based articles, an

The combination of these sources along with the book lead me to understand that childhood abuse has many negative effects that can impact someone emotionally and physically for life, even causing disease. Questioning what negative effects could happen from child abuse began when I read The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery. The book is about the internal struggles of two extraordinarily intelligent women. Renee’s a poor concierge who works at a rich apartment building. Despite being a part of the lower class, Renee is very intelligent. She struggles, however, with showing her true identity amongst the high class residents whom she feels may not appreciate her true self and could possibly fire her. As she works, she secretly categorizes all of the wealthy residents and analizes their behaviors and