Essay Example on Cupcake's Misery: A Story of Divorce, Death and Foster Care

Regarding the story illustrated in the book A Piece of Cake, it presents a very touching event where an innocent eleven-year-old child is forced into misery as a result of the divorce of her parents. In this sense, divorce is considered as something that significantly led to the suffering of Cupcake. After the divorce, Cupcake's mother finds another man, and they get married. Unfortunately, the mother dies mysteriously, leading to Cupcake placed in a foster home because the father was not her biological father (Brown, 2007). Accordingly, living in a foster home as a young girl Cupcake get exposed into several traumatizing situations such as grief and loss, physical, emotional as well as sexual. In this sense, at the age of eleven, Cupcake starts abusing alcohol and drugs in addition to other undesirable things such as prostitution to be able to get money to buy drugs and alcohol.

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Indeed, Cupcake's drug lifestyle and high-risk sexual conducts continue for years until she is thirteen years. At thirteen years, she gets pregnant. It is unfortunate that while Cupcake finds herself into a nasty lifestyle, it is not her making but the life injustices that she is exposed to. When living in a foster home under the care of Mrs. Diane Dobson in charge of the foster home located in Lancaster, her welfare is neglected, and she gets sexually abused by Pete, a nephew to Diane. However, because of the corrupt system at the foster home, no action is taken against Pete (Greene, 2016). Consequently, this is the time Cupcake adopt the bad habit that further exposed her into bad company. In this sense, the article shows the loopholes that exist in foster homes through the example of the foster home managed by Diane, particularly the level of corruption that is choking the society. Thus, the government is supposed to impose stringent compliance for foster homes to ensure that they are managed with individuals who are not corrupt or tolerate corruption. In regard to Cupcake's story and the circumstances that she goes through, it reveals that the number of teenagers being exposed to drugs and sexual abuse is on the rise because of corrupt systems.

Regarding Cupcake's involvement in prostitution, it started as a result of being introduced into the behavior of a woman by the name Candy. Therefore, through the habit of prostitution, Cupcake gets pregnant at an early age of only thirteen years. Tim, a twenty-one-year-old man, impregnate cupcake. As a result, Cupcake undergoes a lot of suffering because of the bad company that she was staying with (Greene, 2016). In the sixth month of pregnancy, Cupcake is beaten by Connie Diane's daughter in collaboration with other foster girls in the foster home. Unfortunately, because of harm instilled in the violent incident, Cupcake miscarries and loses the baby. Accordingly, the episode of Connie and other foster girls teaming up to beat up Cupcake is not a good idea given the fact that she became pregnant because of prostitution behavior; she does not deserve being exposed to such kind of suffering. Instead of showing care to her since she is in the lacerating period, the environment discriminates her and showing her stigma (Greene, 2016). Consequently, the stigma and discrimination received from other girls at the foster home make Cupcake carry on with her drug and alcohol as well as sexual behavior for a year.

When she turns sixteen, whereby she could be regarded as an adult, Cupcake was in a position to run away from the foster home to become independent legally. Thus, she escapes from the foster home ad goes to her adoptive father in San Diego. On arrival in Sa Diego, she lives with her foster father for some weeks, and she, later on, enrolls for high school. Her adoptive father takes the responsibility of looking for an apartment for Cupcake because it was a necessity to possess one in order for Cupcake to be accepted in the school. Therefore, her foster father look for an apartment for Cupcake where the court inspect the residence to verify her employment to establish that she was indeed, working taking care of herself as an adult before she is accepted in the school (Fultz, 2019). In the process, Cupcake graduates from high school and secure herself a job as an alarm monitor because the position did not require any specific experience from the applicant. Based on this context, it is evident that the life of abusing drugs and alcohol and well as involving herself in prostitution was a result of Cupcake's lack of a conducive environment that allows nurture her into a better being (Fultz, 2019). In view of that, it can be noted that many teenagers and not only Cupcake find their selves into bad companies not because of their wish but due to the corrupt system. In regard to cupcake's story, no one should judge other people's lives because one could not understand why these people are leading certain lifestyles. Cupcake's life childhood life is negatively impacted by the death of her mother and the system refusal to allow her raised by her foster father on the grounds that she was not her biological father. While the government finds the foster home a better place for Cupcake, the truth of the matter is that this foster home significantly contributed to most of her sufferings because of the heightened levels of corruption by the management of the house.

When Cupcake starts leading an independent life after reuniting with her foster father, she gradually changes her previous lifestyle. Even though she continued partying as well as using the hard drugs, she maintained good contact with her adoptive father. As she grew up into an adult, Cupcake decides to become sober and honest with her life; hence this marks her turning point in life. Certainly, after deciding to be sober and straightforward, it opened doors to her life recovery, and her sponsor Vee plays an influential role in ensuring she remained persistent (Fultz, 2019). In this regard, therefore, I would like to conclude that the environment surrounding an individual plays a vital role in molding one into a great person or a failure together with their stand regarding how they want their life to be in the future.

References

Brown, C. (2007). A Piece of Cake: A Memoir. Broadway Books.

Fultz, L. (2019). The Value of a True Story: Memoir as a Writer's Primary Source. Retrieved from https://mdsoar.org/bitstream/handle/11603/12852/AS_Fultz,Lena_2019.pdf?sequence=1

Greene, D. T. (2016). "We Need More 'US' in Schools!!": Centering Black Adolescent Girls' Literacy and Language Practices in Online School Spaces. The Journal of Negro Education, 85(3), 274-289. https://doi.org/10.7709/jnegroeducation.85.3.0274