Shot in the Heart: The Problem of Abuse, and Violence - Book Report/Review Example

? SHOT IN THE HEART Though written in a tone of its own kind which makes the story more of a riddle than a reality, the composition by Mikal Gilmore is one great piece that has so much to reveal about the connection between one’s own experience at childhood and the person that he/she becomes as a grown up. The story also effectively shows the effect of environmental influence to any person. He effectively paints out the mystery behind the title to this piece of literature through revisiting his childhood together with the rest of his family members as composed of his father, his mother and his three siblings. Though told through the eyes of an observer and an actor, the story reveals what the fathers sins as well as the mothers omissions brought about through the house of violence, cruelty as well as pain. The weight of the story in search of truth becomes more real in that it is told through the eyes of a real brother to Gary who becomes the subject of the story. Unlike the case with the other versions of the story as written and told by others, the story by Mikal points to the painful reality that the young boys had learnt to live with that their family represented hell by having close relations endearing to cause harm to the very people they ought to have protected or taken care of. The story unfolds through childhood memories where Gilmore being the youngest in the family would love to play with his elder siblings just as other kids would. In such a fateful day as he recalls, he persuaded his brothers to involve him in a darts game in which he was persuaded to play the ‘darts board’. In spite of understanding, the high risk that he was exposed to, his elder brothers proceeded with the game where he records how the three brothers faired in the game. He recalls that Franks dart didn’t hit him but fell some inches from his shoe, Gaylens dart equally never hit him but was much closer than the previous one while Gary managed to rightfully aim and hit through his brother’s toe (Morrison, 1994). Gary grew to become a re-known murderer after murdering two Mormons within consecutive nights. Gaylen became a drunkard through which he sustained serious stab wounds, which resulted to his death while Frank ended up as a recluse. The story paints Mikal as having had the benefit of being brought up in seclusion from the environment in which his other brothers were brought up, a fact that is pointed to have saved his life and character. Mikal grew to become a journalist with the Rolling Stone, a career that blossomed commendably. However, Mikal narrates the ‘Shot in the heart’ story in pain after looking at the great futures that his own brothers held through the photographs taken in the old age and considering the fateful conditions in which his brothers lived in. This story is therefore written in complete pain by a bereaved, obsessive as well as heartbroken Mikal whose main intention is in understanding the root cause of the fate of the only family he knew a his own. This is therefore a story not written for the purpose of self-consolation but on the contrary, it is a written research on the genesis to the misery lived in the writer’s family. More precisely, Mikal is tracking back the point in time in which his brother Gary turned into the serial killer he ended up being, and which resulted to his death. In the search therefore, the story takes Gilmore far way back to the early childhood stories as were narrated to them by their parents, and more so the mother. The mother’s tales would date back as far as the time of the birth of Mormon religion and the remembrance brings him to one particular of such tales given by their mother. In the story, Gilmore’s mother would recall how at a very tender age she was forced to watch a memorable execution. This happened in Utah and according to the mother; she ought not to have watched as she blames it on her condition as being highly superstitious, morbid as well as ghost tormented. It is while running away from the background of strict Mormon believes that as the story tells, she met Frank Gilmore, an old ad salesman. Nevertheless, it is through the encounter that she came to learn of his other families. However, one of the shocking characters to the old man were his frequent disappearances as informed by his engagement in illegal business dealings as well as bad cheques. Within one such a period of identity crises, Frank sired a son with Gilmore’s mother (Bessie) who was named Gary. It is worth noting at this point the queer character of the father in engagement in illegal trade and the frequent disappearance to avoid detection and possible punishment. He also indulged on alcohol besides crime and this informed his decisions to keep on the run. Frank was unable to put up with his four sons with this nomadic life, which led to this family settling at Oregon Portland. However, he opted to elope with Mikal his son that resulted to the adoption of the other family by ‘another’ dad. As the research reveals, much of the change in character by the brothers got shaped at this juncture where the siblings had to endure terror form their ‘dad’ with no help from Bessie their mother. The life was hard as the children braved their mother being battered while they were too never spared of razor straps; fists as well as belts form the dad. It is in such an environment that Gary would learn to hate authority and was quoted to have openly said how he had purposed to murder his father. Further revelations from the story as written by Mikal show a slow but gradual following of one’s father with Gary slowly advancing in robbery, drunkard-ness, violent assault as well as cruelty towards women. This marks Gary’s change of behavior where he was enrolled into a reform school at the tender age of 15 years while at 16 years, he was jailed within a grown up jail. This never changed him as was expected and by age 20, he was convicted of murdering two Mormon men having not stayed at least three years outside the jail. In a rather shocking phenomenon, Gary is shown to have intentionally resisted his parents’ effort of commuting the sentence passed on him and wanted to face death, as he believed would be the only atonement to his bad life. This therefore explains his death though at such a tender age as revealed by the background check of the story. Individual or personal quest as revealed within the book increases the attraction of the story as one becomes more interested with each foregoing paragraph, page and episode alike. Despite the fact that the write keeps in the shadow all through, the conclusion of the story brings him to the light with him revealing his being Gary’s blood brother meant. In rather a shocking episode, the story reveals that the writer has no children with a justification of the wrong in perpetuating the Gilmore’s family. He reasons that in such a fate, there is an obvious something within the lineage that should not be allowed to pass on to subsequent generations. However, in a dramatic turn of events, despite the self-denial and accusation, the story reveals that Gary had a son while Frank’s real father was Robert and not Frank senior, as he was known. This story therefore shows how in a rather destructive way, the Gilmore’s family deal with feelings of anger and pain by indulging in antisocial behavior, which is pointed to leading them into destruction. The story shows how the father (Frank) indulged in alcohol besides getting involved in illegal trade and subsequently adopting disappearance as a means of survival. Gary equally followed suit and copied much of the father’s character, which led to his becoming of a murderer. Having pointed out how the tales told to the children and how their own experience in torture shaped their decisions, the story is more helpful to the public where guardians as well as parents should understand the effect of poor upbringing of the children. There was notable difference in how the writer was brought up in the different environment and how the brothers were brought up under the hostile environment. This is a factor that has been found to have contributed much to the diffences in character and personalities of the four brothers. According to the theory of ‘social learning’ as developed by Albert Bandura, imitation, modeling as well as observations are among many other avenues through which people learns (Grusec, 1992). He held that people learn a lot through observing the behaviors of others while at the same time analyzing the outcome to those behaviors. This theory would be more relevant in analyzing the story by Mikal as the story shows much happening as influenced to what is seen, learnt and practiced. For instance, the character of the three brothers who were left with their mother shows bad characters as developed through observing the bad characters of parents and learning from the stories told. On the other hand, a difference is notable in the character of the writer who was brought up in a different environment as compared to the rest. References Morrison B., (1994). A bad case of blood-poisoning: 'Shot in the Heart' - Mikal Gilmore: Viking, 14.99 pounds. Retrieved from < http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/book-review--a-bad-case-of-bloodpoisoning-shot-in-the-heart--mikal-gilmore-viking-1499-pounds-1414473.html> Grusec J. E., (1992). Social learning theory and developmental psychology: the legacies of Robert Sears and Albert Bandura. Developmental psychology, 28(5): 776-786 Read More