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Transcript

Sickened

By Julie Gregory

Sickened by Julie Gregory

Themes

Being Trapped

The Perception Of Our Parents

Grew up in Southern Ohio

Sickened is her autobiography

  • "I'm a good mom, 4-H, horses, swimming pools, camping trips. I do and do and do" (Gregory 135).

  • Julie's parents do not have her best interests at heart. They do their best to be percieved as good parents, but in reality, they manipulate their daughter to convince her that they are trying to make her life the best that it can be, when they are really ruining it.

Studied psychiatry at the University of Sheffield, England

  • "I feel the words rise into my throat, words to correct her, flooding my mouth, rushing to get out. They crash against one another and then pile into a dam of all the wordsI cannot say. I have to pressmy tongue to the roof of my mouth to hold them back" (Gregory 29-30).
  • This quote shows that Julie felt trapped in her mind. She was not allowed to free her thoughts, as they were confined to the inside of her skull.

  • "I have lived my life in a bubble. First it was her bubble. Then it was of my own making" (Gregory 207).
  • This quote proves how Julie's mother had trapped her in a "bubble" for her entire childhood. Once she got out, she had no idea of what to do except to trap herself again. Julie became trapped in emotional regression and depression.

Also author of My Father’s Keeper

Has appeared on Good Morning America, The Today Show, The BBC Worldwide, People Magazine, Dateline, 60 Minutes, and Lifetime.

Quote #1

"Sometimes clear over to other counties [we'd go] to try out new doctors who would do the tests Mom was starting to read about in waiting rooms" (Gregory 51).

Timeline

Quote #2

Julie's mother was so deep into her disorder that she'd go from doctor to doctor, soliciting tests and exams for her daughter. She became pathological about it.

"She pins me to the trunk of the car with a glare. 'You are going to tell him what's wrong with you, what's happening to your heart. You understand me? Sharp chest pain. Shortness of breath. You got it?'" (Gregory 114).

Evaluation

This demonstrates how Julie's mother would force Julie to embellish and/or completely falsify information about her health so that the doctor would think that she is sick.

Quote #3

"That night in the kitchen, Mom caught me by the hair and slung me to the floor. Dad grabbed both angles of the countertop for leverage and, hauling his leg back again and again, sank steel-toed boots into the hollow of my belly" (Gregory 155).

Julie's parents were clearly physically abusive, in addition to emotionally and psychologically. This is how Julie's parents punished her for attempting to become emancipated.

  • Julie is born in Ohio on May 16, 1969. Her family moved to Arizona to be closer to her grandma.

  • After 5 trips to the ER with her grandmother, her family moved back to Ohio escape her.

  • Julie's mother begins slipping her little white pills to make her headaches worse

  • Julie's little brother, Danny, is born

  • Julie broke her arm in 4th grade

  • Julie and her family move to the country to escape the scrutiny of neighbors
  • Julie's doctors appointments continue, taking her out of a good portion of her school days. She starts to fall behind in school

  • Julie's parents start housing veterans and foster children to earn money

  • Julie goes through a series of heart tests and her mother insists that she have open heart surgery, despite the fact that her doctors deem it unnecessary.

  • Instead, she stays at the hospital for a week and goes through additional tests. Julie adores the hospital because she gets fed and can rest

  • Julie is forced to get a nose job during her freshman year of high school

  • Julie gets set up with a 31-year old man when she turns 16. She was set up by her mother.

  • Julie gets a job at the local hospital.

  • Julie stays in a "group home" for a few days at 16, but her parents convince her to come home.

  • Julie gets a job at Rax Roast Beef, and she is most excited to have money for food.

  • Julie's house gets completely burned to the ground. Luckily, no one was home, and no one was hurt. It is considered an accident and a blessing. The family sees the fire as a chance to start over.

  • Her mother later tells her that her father started the fire. He left the dog, and the majority of the belongings in the house.

  • Julie's mother left for Mexico, and her father moved out. Julie and her little brother, Danny, live on their own.

  • Julie turns twenty-one and moves back to Ohio. She buys her own apartment.

  • At 24, she decides to take classes at a community college, even though she has not received a high school diploma. She falls into a deep depression, unable to sleep or eat.

  • In a psychology class, she learns about Munchausen by Proxy. From all of the stress, she collapses and wakes up in a shelter with her little brother.

  • Her little brother can't remember anything from his childhood. He's repressed the memories.

  • Julie visits her mother in Montana. She meets her new husband and 2 adoptive children. To her horror, she finds the adoptive little girl being abused the same way she was.

  • Julie calls social services, and saves the adoptive little girl, despite the risk of losing a relationship with her mother.
  • Descriptive but interesting/attention grabbing

1."I am a gazelle in slow motion, leaping down the hallway through distant time and space. I lunge toward them, and Mom screams swollow her me. Danny flings himself around Dad's legs his forehead pressing into Dad's groin for leverage, as he beats his little fists on Dad's belly" (Gregory 81).

2. A country summer in Oho is just about one of the lushest, sexiest things you could ask for. It makes any girl want to traipse around in cutoff Daisy Duke shorts and a bikini top. Greenery gone berserk, vining all over everything, pregnant with shoots or seeds just bursting out of every split-open pod and juicy stalks" (Gregory 136).

3. My house of mirrors is a ramshackle farmhouse that sits just a mile from the hospital where I was operated one. The rent is next to nothing. There's no heat upstairs. Even though I live in the city, the house is isolated, surrounded by woods, sitting on the dead end of a street, its foundation sinking slowly into the dense ravine below" (Gregory 201).

  • Conflict and action

1. "You got the count of three, girl. One, TWO-" He swipes out my arm and I break, dashing out the patio screen door, leaping off the deck, running around the pool. He charges after me and catches my weak wrist. I jerk back from my own momentum and he flings me in the grass, flailing the belt over my arms, my legs, my head, my face" (Gregory 73)

2. On Christmas morning, Julie's mom screeched through their trailer. She held a gun up to her head and and threatened to commit suicide.

3. "I slip next to her and she sinks her claws into my thigh. She leans over like she's telling me a secret, keeping her face relaxed. She twists a hunk of my leg and breathes mean in my ear. She clamps my elbow between her thumb and forefinger and steers me up to the reception desk" (Gregory 62).

  • Connection with audience/voice is believable

1. "How did this happen? They're going to cut me. My breath quickens, my eyes fixate in horror. 'You, you can't do this to me,' my voice speaks by itself. 'You can't do it..my mother is making it up!'..I jump to the back corner of the bed, clutching the covers up to my neck with one hand.." (Gregory 122).

2. "I cannot speak. The wires in my brain are black and fried. I cannot find languag, although my hands are desperately feelingin teh dark for what it is I've lost" (Gregory 90).

3. "I kept saying over and over, 'Got to stay cool, got to not let my face show it, got to act normal, be upset and surprised.' Mom was waiting for me in the drive" (Gregory 161).

Quote #4

"And Danny and I used a bucket for a toilet while she traipsed through Mexico with Barbwire Boby. And Dad had a satellite dish installed and a washer and dryer delivered right to the little swing door of the pull-behind camper when his own kids didn't even have a pot to piss in" (Gregory 186).

This quote shows what happened when her parents abandoned her and her little brother. In addition to abusive, her parents have also been neglectful.

Quote #5

"Mom pulls out a new book of matches and carefully bends back the cover to expose two fresh red rows of the minipops she's been giving me for as long as I can remember. My mouth waters when I see their shimmery crimson tips. The first one is always the best, and I pluck it out and get it fast on my tongue, waiting for the metallic zolt to rush my taste buds" (Gregory 20).

This quote is important because it shows how big of an impact Julie's parents had on her. They convinced their child that matches were a treats to eat, like lollipops. This shows that Julie's parents are incredibly bad parents and they do not think about if their child gets harmed by eating matches.

Potential Curriculum

  • Students need to learn to not assume about others- Julie's peers just assumed she was sick, not that her mother was making her sick.
  • A genre that many students overlook- a memior. It is a credible piece of work because it is the autobiography of Julie Gregory.
  • A perfect level for a Regular English I or II.
  • Teaches students to speak for themselves
  • Ties in with other subjects- psychology, social justice, medicine.
  • It makes students more aware of problems outside of their lives.
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