Can the chain of violence be broken? In the essay "the Broken Chain" by M.F.K. Fisher, the author writes about her own experiences to try to understand "the abuse and angry beating of helpless people." She reminiscently discusses three types of punishment which she received as a child which helped her to empathize with others.
             Fisher was spanked as a child, solely by her father. Often she felt that her spankings were underserved, as her younger sister's manipulative actions were often times the cause. As she grew older and began to mature, the bare-bottom spankings became almost an embarrassment. Although she felt them often times unnecessary, the ritualistic spankings had very little effect on her physically. She references the "stinging" but does not cry, unless it is to falsely convince her father that the punishment had some effect on her. The narrator seems to tell of a more emotional effect.
             At one time in the essay, the author recounts a time when she recklessly dumped her little brother out of his highchair and her father, in a rage, her hard enough to throw her to the other side of the room. She is extremely embarrassed and angry, as all of this had taken place in front of her mother and her cousins. She composes herself and walks to her room, but the feeling of insult is obvious as she exits. In the writing the narrator admits that she deserved to be punished for her selfish action toward her brother, but in a later conversation with her father, she expresses her true disbelief that he had actually struck her. She comments that she wished there were some visible evidence of the earlier occurrence remaining, in hopes that her father would have some sense of continued remorse. The narrator further expresses the confusion toward her father's behavior, and the rage in which led to his actions against her.
             After the incident where her father hit her, the narrator tells...