Document analysis : The contrast between official case records and the journal of a woman on welfare

Abstract

This article contrasts the journal writings of Dorothy Thompson, a woman on welfare, with the official agency case records and an oral tradition handed down by successive caseworkers. The record and oral tradition portray Dorothy as an undeserving, offensive, neglectful mother while Dorothy's journal reveals a strong-willed and valiant woman struggling with circumstances she cannot understand. The clash between the official ideologies contained in the case record and Dorothy's lived experience is startling and very much to the detriment of Dorothy and her family. The power is in the social welfare system and not with Dorothy, and her life becomes a documented tragedy, though her humanity endures and makes her story bearable and sometimes uplifting