Burning Bed Theories Spousal Abuse Theories -- Book Report

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Burning Bed Theories

Spousal Abuse Theories -- Walker's Cycle Theory & Learned Helplessness Theory

'The reasons why Mickey Hughes pounded on Francine Hughes repeatedly in many instances and in many locations can be examined by looking at theories of spousal abuse. There is no one exact theory would appear to explain Mickey's violent outbursts, but there are several theories that offer reasonable explanations.

One theory found in the book Stopping Domestic Violence: How a Community Can Prevent Spousal Abuse is "Walker's cycle theory of violence." This theory posits that violence against women (a spouse or an intimate partner) occurs in three stages: Stage one, is the building of tension; stage two, is the trigger that sets off the violent incident; and stage three, is the "honeymoon phase" (Jenkins, et al., 2001, p. 47).

In Francine's case the building of tension was near constant. There are myriad passages and sections of The Burning Bed that reflect the tension she experienced. For example, when she left Mickey and went to live in her mother's house temporarily, Mickey called her mother's house repeatedly and threatened to kill himself if he couldn't have her back (to beat on some more). Finally Francine took the phone off the hook so she wouldn't have to hear his wild ravings any more, but "The house was filled with a sense of siege" (154). In the morning Francine "…felt sick with indecision…[and] wild with worry over the children" (154).

After Mickey agreed to stop drinking, Francine tried hard to be patient and nurse him but Mickey soon quit his rehab from alcohol and stage two was on its way on page 159. It was a hot afternoon in August and Mickey hadn't come home for dinner.

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First, once again, tension was experienced. "[Francine] felt an eerie intuition of something impending, of disaster bearing down. Second, the trigger that set Mickey off was his alcoholism. Francine is awakened when Mickey comes home drunk and turns on the light. She is surprised and says, "I thought you weren't drinking!" Mickey answers: "That's what you get for thinking…No goddamn woman is going to tell me I can't take a drink" (159). He beat her, threw her to the floor and put a knife to her throat. "Get out of here before I cut your throat," he yelled, sending her out in the street in her nightgown. The brief honeymoon period came to pass after that last scene when Mickey helps Francine; "For the first few weeks that Francine attended school Mickey left her alone" but after a month or so "…Mickey beat Francine" once or twice a week. This was the cycle.

In the "learned helplessness theory" (LHT) a woman like Francine who survives in an abusive relationship "…will attempt to leave many times and routinely act in very conscious ways to try to minimize the abuse directed at them and to protect their children" (University of Minnesota - UOM). The LHT theory reflects that battered women will make "active and conscious decisions" to leave for short periods "to escape the violence" -- but in Francine's case she would come back hoping Mickey would ease up on the aggression against her. Women who get caught in situations related to LHT tend to have "low self-esteem, a tendency to withdraw, or….....

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