Touching Spirit Bear Lesson Plan

Why does Cole believe that Garvey, Edwin, his parents and others "didn't really care what happened to him" (6)?

Through experiencing a number of challenging events in his life, Cole has come to believe that his parents do not really care about him and wish that he was not around. Cole's father drinks heavily and when drunk he regularly abuses Cole and to a lesser extent his mother. In addition, Cole's mother does not defend him in these situations and drinks a lot herself, in order to dull the pain of her difficult marriage to an abusive man. Cole's parents are wealthy and well-connected, and when Cole has struggled in the past, his parents have done little to help him...