The Theme Of Sarah Smith's Marilou Is Everywhere

Erdon Kamberi

Professor Schneider

Honors-200

3 March 2023

Abuse and its Effects on Choice

Coming-of-age stories are characterized by many motifs, fear, mistakes, growth, and love. Sarah Smith’s Marilou is Everywhere and Gabriel Bump’s Everywhere you don’t Belong showcase such themes succinctly. The stories also radiate just how abuse can propagate and affect all areas of a person’s life. There are many forms of abuse that are present in coming-of-age stories, absentee parents are a common source of abuse. Absentee parents themselves may not be abusive, but the action of creating a household where children do not become informed and are allowed to enforce bad habits is abusive. Marilou is Everywhere and Everywhere you don’t Belong show that

Cindy fits in like a puzzle-piece in Bernadette’s life, until Cindy obstructs a phone call from Jude, “And then I thought again of the phone call. I petted and nursed all my reasons: It wasn’t my business. Jude had meant to call her mother, and that’s what she got. It wasn’t my fault that her mother was impossible.” Cindy’s history of abuse led her to freeze up in the moment. Part of the abuse that Cindy faces is her not being allowed to make her own decisions. So, when Cindy finds herself at a crossroads between potentially saving Jude’s life or continuing her game of pretending to be Jude; she chooses the latter. Smith’s passage shows having Cindy’s decisions be made for her at every possible moment faces relegates her ability to make the right decision at a crucial time. Urging us to allow oneself to direct their own life by making their own choices, and not falling victim to the oppressive nature of other’s choices. Smith shows that mental abuse, in the form of allowing others to make decisions for oneself, will later cause the inability to make one’s own

In this instance we can see a different kind of abuse enacted onto Claude, “Now, all these years later, all my inner chaos remains hard to decipher. Why didn’t I join her and Jimmy and Annette? Why was I stranded? I couldn’t move. Why?” (Bump, 68). The situation he finds himself in is particularly dangerous, with both sides considering malintent, despite this Claude is still stuck between crossroads. His inner monologue gives readers a glimpse as to why he was so conflicted, it is not a problem of mental or physical abuse, rather of institutional abuse. Claude knows that the methods behind the police force and the Redbelters are corrupt, even despite their differences. The cops in Chicago target black communities and serve injustices, while the Redbelters deal drugs and arm themselves with illegal firearms. As a result of the malevolent of both sides, Claude does not know where to side himself with. Bump writes to show readers that the proponents of abuse are not just of the physical and mental variety. Institutional abuse plays a role in the way that people are conditioned to think, the way a certain group of people act affect the choices that a person is going to make. This ties in expertly within the story and the real world too, Chicago is known