Analysis of "The Girl in the Window" Revised By Lexie Aebi

Analysis of “The Girl in the Window”

Nobody knew a child lived in the house across the street. Neighbors had seen the woman who lived there and her two older sons, but never a little girl. When she was found, she was almost seven years old. She weighed 46 pounds and was wearing only a diaper.
According to Mark Holste, a detective on the case, the girl was covered in “thousand of roach bites.” She had open sores all over her body, and was laying in her own urine and feces. Her hair was matted and covered with lice. She was starving to death.
She was removed from the home that day. “The Girl in the Window” is her story.
Her name is Danielle. Somehow, she had been ignored and neglected her entire life. She lived in a room with one window that was broken. Thousands of bugs crawled through the open frame and into her room.
She could not speak, feed herself, use the restroom or even stand. She was so malnourished that her ribs were poking out of her tiny frame. She didn’t acknowledge the presence of people at all. Her eyes were empty. She was barely there.
How could the situation get so bad? Her mother had excuses, but nothing could account for this type of abuse and neglect.
Danielle was in the hospital for six weeks. She had to be fed through an IV because she couldn’t swallow whole food. Dr. Kathleen Armstrong said Danielle had “environmental autism.” She was so neglected that she didn’t respond to the most natural human instincts of affection and comfort.
Danielle was eventually found by Bernie and Diane Lierow. They had always wanted a daughter. Danielle wasn’t what they had been looking for, but when they saw her they knew that it was right. She needed them. They adopted Danielle and she became a member of their family. She left her old world behind, and began a new life as Dani.
Dani’s birth mother gave up parental rights, and is on probation. She served no jail time, and had her community service hours waived.
Dani has made huge strides in her development. She is engaged and is learning new things everyday. She laughs when she is tickled by her older brother. She is potty trained, and is working on how to use utensils. Dani is in speech therapy five days a week, and even takes horseback riding lessons. She was saved in every sense of the word.
“The Girl in the Window” is a very unique story. The reader is guaranteed to remember Dani for life. The explicit details and quotes send chills up the readers’ spine. The story provides a very personal connection from the reader to the characters. The horrifying living conditions grab your attention and pull you in to the story.
This story personally affected me in many ways. I have never heard the term “feral child” before. I cannot believe that children can be so badly neglected that they cannot even speak. This story is something that everyone should read. Dani should not have been overlooked for so long.
Dani slipped through the cracks of the system, and everyone should be aware of this problem. Before Dani was finally rescued, there had been two previous investigations of child abuse conducted at the home. Both investigations had found the conditions to be bad but nothing had been done about it. Perhaps if the first team of investigators had removed the child, Dani could have saved years of suffering. Perhaps she could have gained years of love.
“The Girl in the Window” was written by Lane DeGregory. DeGregory spent many hours with Dani and her new family observing and asking questions. She was able to see first hand, how Dani was advancing in her development. DeGregory sat in on Dani’s speech therapy sessions as well.
Although she was not present for the original investigation, DeGregory was able to produce the story from interviews with individuals involved in the case, medical records, court records and police reports.
The most important resource was the accounts from the investigators and police that covered the scene the day Dani was rescued. They were able to recall with the greatest amount of detail, how bad the situation actually was. Especially Mark Holste, the one who carried Dani out of the house.
DeGregory did a beautiful job of telling Dani’s story. She connected the reader to the subjects in a flawless, fluid motion. The story is most impressive because of the emotions it draws out of the reader. It induces feelings of sadness, anger, hope and finally happiness. The descriptive wording allows the reader to visualize what life is like for Dani. “In her new room, she has a window she can look out of. When she wants to see outside, all she has to do is raise her arms and her dad is right behind her, waiting to pick her up.”
The quotes in this story are important to its success. The quotes DeGregory choose to use were very powerful and added so much personal feeling to the writing. They also help guide the reader to the emotion they should feel. When I read the following quote from Tracy Sheehan, Danielle's guardian in the legal system, I felt extremely angry with Dani’s birth mother. "No food. No one talking to her or reading her a story. She can't even use her hands. How could this child be so invisible?" DeGregory specifically choose certain quotes to include to spark a specific emotion in the reader.
This piece was extremely well written. There are very few recommendations I could make for improving the feature. I would suggest, however, to interview and have some background on the two older boys that were living in the house at the time of Dani’s abuse. As a reader I want to know details on them as well, and I want to know why they didn’t take some kind of action on the situation. On the same note, who were the investigators that came to the home the first two times? What was their opinion on the case?
I found, as a reader, the multimedia online for the story to be very useful and informative. The pictures along with the dialogue provided a great supplement to the story itself. It allowed the reader to further investigate the story, and created an even deeper connection with the subject. With the audio, it was possible to hear how Dani is working on her speech and her progress.
This story was both tragic and beautiful. Today Dani is not only surviving, but is thriving in her new life. DeGregory successfully covered a difficult story and should be very proud of her work.