The book I choose to review is
entitled the broken cord which is the story of a single father who is raising a
young child who has fetal alcohol syndrome.
This story begins with a single aboriginal man in his mid to late 20’s
named Michael. He is a well-educated
graduate student at the time who later goes on to be professor at the beginning
of the book he is not involved in any romantic relationship. He feels like
something in his life is missing and has had the idea of becoming a father for
a long time now. A lot of his family and friends were very surprised about his
decision to willingly become a single father especially since he was still in
his 20’s. He is also met by some surprised reactions along the way from people
at the adoption agency who were confused as to why a young single man would
choose to adopt a child by himself. After months of going through all the
interviews and necessary paper work he receives a phone call saying he has been
matched up with a child. He is instantly thrilled when he receives the good
news, because he wasn’t sure if he would be able to adopt as a single young man.
When he meets the agent in person his excitement is slightly brought into question
with what the adoption agency agent tells him next. He says the little 3 year
old boy was given a diagnosis of being mentally retarted that was told he would
never be able to attend a public school. The child’s name is Adam and he taken
from an abusive family on an aboriginal reserve. Even after hearing this news
he agrees to take the child, because he believes this may be his only chance
and he may not get another chance to adopt if he turns this one down.
Throughout
the story he faces many people who are very critical of Adams development and
skills. They see him as being limited by his disability and not by his
personality. The fact that he is also of aboriginal decent does play a factor
as well as this story was based in the late 1960’s early 70’s. He never gives
up on his son and often refused to believe what others have to say about Adams
developmental disabilities. When he originally gained custody of Adam the
social worker told him that doctors believed Adam would never be able to attend
public school due to his developmental disabilities. Much like every parent
that cares about their children he never accepted this and was determined to do
everything in his power to prove everyone wrong. Adam was below average for a
child in his preschool class he was still wearing diapers and he had a very
limited vocabulary for someone his age.
For a long time Michael is in denial about
Adams condition and always want to blame it on him having a slow start to life
where he had parents who did not nurture and raise him properly in those early
years. He always found an outside reason which must be responsible for Adam’s
slow skills in the classroom and never wanted to admit Adam was different from
other students his age level. Michael adopted two more children after Adam and
noticed that they developed at a much faster rate than Adam and surpassed him
at a younger age.
Not only did he face challenges with
his son’s fetal alcohol syndrome, but his son sometimes faced discrimination
with being visually aboriginal. Adam birth parents had both lived and died at
early ages on a reserve and he had multiple brothers and sisters who were split
up and adopted by other families throughout the country. Michael only ever
wanted the best for Adam, but as he grew older he did realize the reality that
Adam would have restrictions on what he would be able to do so he finds him a
vocational program where he learns basic skills and finds a job at a bowling
alley. Michael had a hard time coming to terms with just how much fetal alcohol
syndrome effected his son’s life, but even so it never stopped him from trying
to give his son the best life that he could. It really shows that no matter how
hard you try you can never erase a child disability so making the proper
adaptations for a child is truly the best course of action for them to achieve
success.
Personally I have a lot of respect for
this man who as a single parent who adopted this child and did everything in
his power to see him succeed. I think it takes a very brave person to take this
challenge on as a single parent being told right from the beginning that
expectations for his adopted son were not very high at all. This book does a
good job at raising awareness of the issues that can arise of consuming alcohol
during pregnancy. There is extensive research which links drinking while
pregnant to developmental issues. The author also shed light on alcohol abuse
on these aboriginal reservations and how damaging it can be not only for those
who drink, but to the next generations who may have fetal alcohol syndrome as a
result from it. I would highly recommend this book as it depicts a touching
story of a man coming to terms with his son’s disability as well as acts as an
advisory tale about the dangers of consuming alcohol while pregnant.
The Broken Cord written by Micheal Dorris
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