Olivia Zinnah: Documentary Analysis

MY THINH CAO
PS/SO 274-01
Professor Fisher
Extra assignment
September 27, 2015
Small Small Thing: The Olivia Zinnah Story Small small thing is a documentary about Olivia Zinnah which was taken place like a free event at the Monmouth University on October 16. In the event, people watched the documentary and then had questions to the director Jessica Vale after this. The documentary is about how Olivia struggled to her extremely difficulty after she was raped by her cousin John who is twenty years old. Olivia has to stay in the hospital because of her injury. Olivia is given a life saving colostomy bag after suffering for two years. However, Olivia died when she was 9 in December 2012 after struggling for living a hard time. Olivia's case is

Although violence does not occur on screen, we can see the violence exists there through the ways people talk and tell the Olivia's story. According to the characters, the rapist always threats victims that if they tell anybody what happened, he would kill them, kill their parents and it remains in the child's mind. In order to get the rapist's name, doctors in the hospital must even act like bad people and threat to kill her so then Olivia tells the name of the rapist. This means the violence has always happened in Liberia society that everyone is so scared of it. There is an interview with a man who was in the military in the Civil War before in Liberia. The reason why he acts the violence is because of the war. After the war, he always has nightmares and there is nothing he can do or nobody he can talk to, that reason makes him stress and lead him to do violence. Some people say that rape is legal as the tool of war. Therefore, rape lies in their minds as the legal action. Although the man's reason given is not quite a reasonable answer, but it is the general answer for what and why they do violence to others. . In addition, there are numerous people who are unemployment in the country. Without anything to do, people tend to do

We know that gender inequality is the particular form of social or legal status that may confer the privileges or barriers to people in the society. Based on gender, people will have different treatments in the particular situations. Indeed, there are many children who are victims of rape in the hospital as the result of gender inequality. Because of thinking rape is the ritual purpose act, men rape women and children without worrying anything. Women are more likely to accept this act because they are in the inferior groups in the society. Women do not have many benefits and rights to make their own living. When Olivia's mom is asked that why she does not report the rape. She says that they need a man's voice to stand strong and because she is a woman, it is not enough. With her answer, we can see that men and women in Liberia have very different powers and benefits. The gender inequality affects terribly to people, especially for women. There are many women make money as prostitutes in Liberia, they live in the streets and poor slums. According to the documentary, prostitutes have an average of four to five people every night, but the money they earn do not enough to afford their lives. Women have less access of education, work and privileges than men. They usually do housework and take care of their children while the men work outside and control the