Rose’s Story Reaction Paper
Caroline “Carrie” Thompson
St. Louis Community College

Rose’s Story is a minimally edited manuscript of a woman – author Wanda “Rose” Bibb – who repeatedly faces challenges of the social work system. The book shows the significant need for reforms and revision of policies within the social work system. This book chronicles Bibb’s life in her words from the 1940’s to December 1985. Rose’s Story is often a reading supplement in many college human service courses to understand the client's perspective.
Early life got off to a bad start. At a young age, Rose was in one foster home after another. She never was adopted or lived in a permanent home. Despite having some family connections, they prove no better. One foster home was the home of her stepmother. They treated her like a house slave than a guest or resident. Her stepsister Julia wanted her to clean the house and care for the kids. As children, Julia was physically abused to Rose and never thought of everyone expect herself. Rose’s stepsister is a selfish person. Rose expresses the experience she went through even as an adult. Julia was the stepsister from hell.
Rose's romantic and sexual relationships with men were unsuccessful. At age 15, she endured a rape which left her considerably psychologically unstable. However, by high school graduation, she found happiness and security with her sweetheart with whom she was about to marry. That joy proved short-lived, unfortunately, when her fiancé gets killed in an automobile accident. Rose's stepmother encourages her to marry a newly divorced man 20 years her senior. Returning to the rape, that made Rose mentally unstable. She was angry was society. Doctors would diagnose her with a mental illness and linked everything to a mental disorder.
A probable erroneous diagnosis would be somewhat trivial comparing to other things. Talking