Patrick O’sullivan’s essay “Black & Blue”, challenges the belief that any form of abuse, physical or psychological, can be justified if those abused eventually thrive. Instead, O'Sullivan argues that the abuse he endured from his father was not what got him to the National Hockey League; hard work and determination to find a safe place to escape, was what made him into the player he was. Facing abuse everyday, regardless of how he played, became a new normal for O’Sullivans. He knew all the discipline and training was just “fluff”(par.6), in which enabled O'Sullivan's father to treat him like an “animal”(par.6) in front of other adults for so long. Although the topic of abuse is usually discussed with pessimism, by drawing on personal anecdotes
