Caught in the Undertow; Escaping the Grip of Child Abuse by Goldstein - Book Report/Review Example

Goldstein, Jeffrey. Caught in the Undertow; Escaping the Grip of Child Abuse. Ney York: PublishNext, Book Review The author, an endearing protagonist in this story, walks the readers through his emotional and breath-taking journey, as he falls victim of an a abusive father that subjects him to verbal, physical and psychological abuse, and is forced to seeks solace in some other better place. He puts up with other challenges besides abuse, and his perseverance and remarkable tenacity amid this struggle inspires the readers who would be compelled to have a similar attitude in their everyday struggle. Aspired by those he chose as role models, Jeffrey structures around him a resourceful attitude and finally gets past his adversity. Jeff intends to reach a wide range of audience including non-academic global readership, generally believed to have done little to address child abuse. This work can be fairly termed as a constant ringing bell in our modern social settings aimed at a mass audience. His commitment to connect with these readers emotionally is vivid as he creates disturbing scenes of his abuse to an extent of having him see therapists as early as at 14. The readers are lost at some point though, where he doesn’t give details about the progress he had with the therapists. His relentless optimistic tone through the story overshadows the plight that comes with child abuse making it difficult for other victims in the society to connect with him. Nevertheless, the book is a thrilling read and is recommendable to audiences of all ages. Main Developments and Themes in the Book The book is structurally a memoir of Jeffrey’s childhood as he underwent an abusive relationship with his maternal father who he describes and portrays as having had two personas; at a time pleasant yet with a regular tendency to explode with range and anger (Goldstein ,pg 2-109). Jeffrey would emulate his grandparents from whom he would learn to address sensitive issues and assume different choice of words do depict even some body organs like penis at a tender age. Raised at a time of raging modernity, the Beatles would inspire his attitude and would overcome bullies and win girls at the same time. The themes of ill parentage, abuse, negligence, perseverance, optimism and leadership are underscored in the book and the choice of setting for the storyline creates a touch of reality with Jeffrey’s situation. The abusive father would belittle the kid, attack him physically and subject him to pain. This would leave him in panic an element that affects the kid psychologically. The father would pull a different face before his neighbours who would then think of him as a good dad. That proved more hurting to Jeffrey than the physical abuse that he would go through. The neighbours would imagine all was well yet he would suffer in silence. He would be disillusioned at some point seeing how the father would get away with this (Goldstein pg 136-208). Suffering, diseases and death are other themes that shape up Jeffrey’s work. His sister, Sheryl, would succumb to Leukemia an element that would leave the family torn in emotional pain and feelings of loss to a point of the mother seeing Jeffrey as more evil and should have thus died. The death is devastating for the family and Jeffrey’s perseverance yields him some optimism that he does well academically and in other fields. He is social and has some time to engage in extracurricular activities where he does well. Though he has to go through therapies even when so young, we realize a sense of victory as he overcomes his adversity. He comes off as a talented leader in many aspects, an attribute shaped up by his experiences. He is a blended leader whose qualities feature in many types of leadership. Lessons learnt from this book The book illuminates the need for the society to act and have in place a world free of childhood abuse. It is a reminder that a lot of children are being abused in the society today, an element that affects them psychologically in the long run. The book is a wakeup call to neighbours and those connected to others socially that those around us are not who they act to be. Jeffrey’s father would get a dad of the year award from his neighbours yet he tormented his child every time an opportunity represented itself. The lesson here is that many children are suffering in closed doors. There is needed a means to establish how children fair in the hands of their parents. Jeffrey would wear a different face at school. He would hide it from teachers and friends, who would entirely remain in the dark about his sufferings. This underscores the need to have a program at schools to identify children who might be victims of abusive parents. This would save them from this plight and save their lives. The book offers some lessons on need for a positive attitude, perseverance and optimism. Jeffrey’s attitude has such an impact on readers and reminds everyone there is a silver lining upon every dark cloud. He bears with his suffering and the abuse does not stop him from being relevant socially, in sports and other arenas. He performs better than others and uses his plight to inspire himself to greater heights. His choice to have it down as a literature narrative and present a life changing read wraps up the reward for positive attitude, optimism and perseverance. Implications of the book on the concepts of culture and leadership Jeffrey’s idea of leadership is diverse, rich in perspectives and blended in a manner that would shape up many leadership styles. The book is a consistent source of direction for the society, and his decisions as demonstrated in the entire book create a vivid image of his leadership qualities. His attributes are motivational and influential in nature and would compel others to follow sooth. The other characters in form of his father and mother also demonstrate different aspects of leadership.   Jeffrey portrays himself as a person whose decisions are not limited to the perceptions of those around him. His approach has a direct impact on transformational type of leadership. He reinforces the idea behind the concept of transformational leadership as he attempts to reshape and help us rethink about child abuse in the society today (Martindale pg 20-36). He challenges and inspires the readers and provokes reaction as they emulate him and share this idea with others. Jeffrey validates essence of charismatic leadership. Readers are stimulated to think independently (Martindale pg 20-35). The author reveals what happens in closed doors and the possible plight that kids may go through. Jeffrey is literally chocked by his dad. He is forced to make decisions in many areas calling for situational type of leadership. He underscores the fact that there lacks a best type of leadership and that different moments and situations calls for different decisions (Blanchard pg 20-35). He would go through abuse but still assume self-leadership roles in the class and pursue his education. REFERENCES Blanchard, Paul Hersey & ken. "Life cycle theory of leadership." training and development journal (1969): 20-35. Goldstein, Jeffrey. Caught in the Undertow; Escaping the Grip of Child Abuse. Ney York: PublishNext, 2014. Martindale, N. "Leadership Styles: How to handle the different personas." Strategic communication management (2011): 20-36. Read More