Crazy Brave: Domestic Abuse

Logan Mohr
Crazy Brave Blog Post
Option #4

Domestic Abuse Accepted by Women in The Book, Crazy Brave?

The real cause behind the behavior.

     The are many instances in which domestic abuse is present in Joy's life in the story Crazy Brave. The picture that I got from the story was that the domestic abuse was not uncommon in the households at that time for the Native American families. Joy had stated in the book that there were no domestic abuse centers that women could even go to for help and that the authorities would never take a woman's word over a man's, but especially if it was a white man. The men that were abusive in Joy's life were not necessarily all bad, except for her step dad that her mother married. But, most cases the abuse could all be traced back to the men binge drinking and coming home mad and taking it out on the women. The alcohol was the center cause of everything. For example, The man that Joy married last, he was always very nice and kind to Joy until he would drink. He would go crazy after that as seen when he hit her, when he was at the bar, when he almost drowned in pool, and finally when he ripped the power line down and tried breaking in the house. Joy says that the reason most women accept the punishment is that they have this notion that the man that hits them is not the man they married. The alcohol possesses them and changes them into something else. The women just think of the sober man that is always kind and loves them. The charm and kindness of the sober men outweighs the abusiveness, or that is the message that I get from reading the book. I do not think the people are weak in any way, just that the alcohol is a terrible thing that changes them into people they are not. Also the social pressures that all the Native American people were facing I think just weighed on them and drove them to do things like binge drink which then lead to the abuse. Overall I believe it was the society at that time that lead to the domestic abuse that occurred in Joy's life.