Sadie's irony
Sadie comes to the women's shelter completely defeated, powerless thinking that her will can't change anything. It turns out that all she needed was a little push by another woman there to take things into her own hands, instead of just reading children's books. Ironic is also that she gets caught by the same man, her husband, whom she's been looking for. In their reunion we get a glimpse into what kind of abuse she was in, and the abuser taking over her again. He destroys her son's drawing as a form of crushing her will and taking over control again, he asks her about her hair-change indicating that he had full control over her body and her appearance.
Promoting revenge
It is a classic revenge story about a woman killing her abuser and her son's murderer. It is meant as a form of woman empowerment, but the underlying message is that of justification of murder as revenge. It shows a deeper issue as well, of abuse victims not being protected and fought for enough, it shows the silencing of victims.
