knew that I would keep in touch with Mike Mansfield and he had promised to be my pupil-master. All I needed were my O-levels, A-levels
and a degree. Easy-peasy Briscoe 244 It can be seen from personal description, her speeches, reactions, and
thought that Clare is confident. She is confident enough to state what she thinks and wants. Besides, she is also very confident in stating her ability and skills.
Clare believes in herself that she can be what she wants to be.
4. Tough
Clare has to face so many problems and difficulties in her life. However, she is tough in dealing with those events. How she reacts with the situations really
show her toughness. Almost all of the difficulties that happen in her life are caused by her own mother. Her mother often beats Clare. However, no problems
are able to make Clare surrender. She keeps struggling in her awful life. One night, Clare is not allowed to eat and drink at all with an intention to
prevent her from wetting the bed. Her mother’s torment does not stop until that. Besides not being allowed to eat, Clare is also not allowed to wear clothes while
sleeping for she will only make them wet. And the worst of all is that she gets beatings before sleeping. Her mother starts to grab her minnie and squeezes it
tightly. She also digs her nails into Clare’s minnie. After that, her mother grabs hold of both Clare’s nipples and squeezes it between her fingers. At last, she takes
the mattress in which Clare sleeps away with her. However, Clare does not surrender in that terrible situation. She is very tough in facing the situation.
Peace at last. I found some clothes, covered myself up and started to make a bed in the floor, using a pile of old hand-me-downs which had been in
my wardrobe quite some time. Once my bed was made, I got on it and turned the light off. My sister Pauline put her head around the door.
‘You all right, Clare?’ she whispered. ‘Yes, I’m fine.’
‘You should not answer back, you know.’ My head was hurting, my nipples were on fire and the pain between my
legs was intense, but I had survived” Briscoe 52. The night after Christmas day, Clare is woken up by the sound of her
alarm as she wets the bed again. When she opens her eyes, her mother is already in her room with a shoe on her right hand. After pulling Clare’s nightdress, she
then slaps Clare’s bare bottom, right hand and her right upper arm. Finally, she leaves the room with the wet sheet of the bed, the blanket, and the nightdress in
her hand. Still, this situation does not make Clare give up. She never lets herself to cry on something unimportant. At last, Clare manages to make her bed up with
some old clothes. She removed my blanket and took it away with my sheet and nightdress. I
found another nightdress on the wardrobe, put that on and made my bed up with some old clothes. Then I got back into bed and waited. I could hear
my mother opening and closing the drawers in the kitchen. The best thing for me to do was stay where I was, and so I did Briscoe 61-62.
Although she has a hard fighting with Eastman, Clare does not give up
with the situation. She does not let herself end in crying. Instead, Clare then goes to find her father and tells him not to get involved since she will deal with it by
herself in the next morning. She already has an intention to report Eastman’s abuse to the court.
I was dazed and was busy brushing the glass out my hair when specks of blood bubbled up on my hand. Eastman panicked and was removed from
the room; my mother pulled him upstairs. I got my coat and left the house and went to find my dad. Both my eyes were badly swollen and a bead of
blood had formed at the top of my forehead. I walked from Sutherland Square to 215 Camberwell New Road. My father was not there, but one of
his tenants drove me to 41 Offley Road. Blood streamed down my face. Broken glass glistened in my hair. George took one look at me and went to
the cellar to retrieve his axe. He put it in the car and asked me what happened. I told him that Eastman had had a fight with me and pushed my
head through a window. I then said that I was going to deal with it in the morning and it was not necessary for him to get involved. That night I
stayed with George Briscoe 133-134. It is common for Clare to get her mother’s tortures if she puts her mother
into anger. One Friday Clare asks her mother’s permission to go to a church disco, but her mother does not allowed her. Instead, she beats Clare using split-split
stick. Then Clare threats her mother to tell her torments when she goes back to school next Monday. However, this just puts her mother into a further anger. Her
mother then scoops Clare’s left breast in her hand. She pinches to the left of the breast and twists it in her hand. At last, she digs her nails into Clare’s nipple.
Although the pain is unbearable, Clare remains standing to show her toughness. “The pain was unbearable and I was sinking fast to the floor. I had to remain
standing and did not want her to think she had won. I had to talk to her face to face” Briscoe 187.
After three weeks of her mother’s leaving home, Clare begins to realize that the money she gets from Roses is no longer enough to pay for essential items.
Still, she struggles in this difficult situation. She then cuts back on quick meals like Wimpy burgers, fish and chips. She keeps fighting in life, and then decides to
seek for another job. Angela was a cleaning supervisor and she held the contract for a block of
office buildings in the West End. About three weeks after Mummy left home I asked her whether it might be possible to get a job with her
Briscoe 324. Clare is a tough person. It can be seen through her reactions towards some
situations that happen in her life. She never gives up in her terrible situation of
life. Clare always tries to be tough in facing problems in her life, and then she struggles to survive and to gain a better life.
5. Hardworking
