A Thousand Sisters Analysis

The author of A Thousand Sisters, Lisa Shannon, is such an inspiring writer. She had a normal, perfect life until she watched an episode on Oprah Winfrey’s show about the women of Congo. Congo women often get raped and their husbands and children killed. I find it very difficult to compare the Congolese women to our society or anyone. However, I can empathize with the Congolese women because I have also experienced a loss of dignity through sexual violence and other abuse. Lisa Shannon as a human seems very amazing. After her father’s death she realized she felt an emptiness in her life and wanted to make a difference. Then she saw the episode on Oprah and began to recognize the Congo problems, so she began the Run for Congo. As she becomes
Little did I know that what I would experience would change my life. Since the first day of my marriage, I began getting physical abused, that continued as well as the emotional abuse. I could no longer talk to anyone not even my family. One thing I made sure was that I never stopped attending school, even if my so called husband would be outside the door peeking inside every five minutes. I was a prisoner for many months and I can relate to the Congo Women who feel like prisoners in their own villages, they do not have the freedom to go outside at night. Safety is one thing we women desire. This husband of mine would be next to me all the time, one occasion I tried running away but he ran me over with the car. The other occasion, he was driving and hurting me at the same time so I opened the door and threw myself out the car, while he drove over 55mph. Both times I failed, I just injured myself, and made him even angrier. In comparison with a Congolese woman, she states “I tried to escape, to run, but they caught me…” (143). I know exactly how that feels, we have both tried to escape danger but we are not that strong
After ten months of a horrible marriage, November 21, 2010 in a public parking, my so called husband was angry at me for getting into a terrible car accident. He began choking me, and put a knife to my neck, I do not remember exactly what I did but I did scream until the cops got there. I denied everything, so they let us go, and the police escorted me to my family’s house and I stayed there. As I look back at my denial, I can find similarities with the Congolese women. For example in page 164, when Lisa asks the women “how many of you have been raped?” a few hands go up then quickly retreat. These women won’t talk about sexual violence in public, I am exactly the same