A House by the Sea by P.H. Lee

I believe the main purpose of this piece is talking about child abuse. While I was able to get that from the main point of the child locked in the basement, I didn’t actually understand what all these formerly abused people living in a house by the sea versus the city was supposed to mean. My best guess was that it was the author wanting to see people having a place they could all live where everyone who went through child abuse could live out their lives in an overall positive way. The story gives the possibility of simple happiness and peace with other people who went through the same thing. Even if some never quite get there the house by the sea was a place where it would be possible for them to have the chance at a simple peace and happiness. 

I also think this piece touches on how society shuts kids of abuse out and the “city” represents general society where people ignore and allow child abuse to happen and perpetuate. What struck me was the beginning where it said “They can’t live in the City, of course. Can you imagine?… once you’d seen one of them, of course you’d spend the whole day thinking about it. You’d think about that one awful field trip you took as a child, seeing them locked in a basement, mewling and promising futilely to be good, and you’d spend the whole rest of the day feeling unreasonable and guilty and ashamed….would that be joyous? Would it be the happy city we live in, the happy life we enjoy?” This part struck me because it made me think about how we as a society ignore others pain and suffering. When we see someone who is being abused it makes us sad and so we don’t want to see it. 

I think I have some trouble when I have to interpret the meaning of everything in a story and when the author doesn’t tell me anything as definite. That is why I both enjoyed this story and the way it forced me think a bit more, while still feeling like I missed a lot of what the author was trying to say.