Lucy standing at the back door looking at the dead dogs.
David will never know. He will never understand anything of what happened to me. When those men came here it seemed really strange because not many people come this way. I never thought that the reason they were here was because they wanted to harm us. This had never happened to me. So much brutality experienced in just a few hours. If i had not believed the story the man told us, if I had stayed my ground, what would have happened? Maybe we would be dead, like my darlings, my innocent dogs. I feel emptiness in me, as if they took everything away from me. So much hate infiltrated into me by those rapists, a feeling I had never felt before, is now in me. This feeling is between fear, realization and emptiness all together. A hate against me so shocking that I do not know if I will be able to forget. I do not feel hate towards them, in a way I am starting to understand now, how much, people suffered because of us, to the extent of making them hate us this way, to make them want to harm us. However, don't they have the right to do it? We were the ones who started harming them in their own land, now they are just doing what we once did to them. This is the price I am paying now, it has happened and I cannot take it back, the only thing I can do is accept it. David will not accept it, but there is no reason to be mad for what they did to me when he does something similar with women. He calms his needs and then looks for another one to use. Either way, this is not about David, this is about me, there is no point in making an accusation. It is preferable to keep this to myself, and hopefully with time this emptiness will vanish and everything will go back to how it was before the incident. I will never leave this farm; this is a land I am not able to give up, I have to face what happened here and not run away, even if what happened today may happen again.
Analysis
Lucy's thoughts through the novel are very confusing. The fact that she does not tell David what she really thinks has the reader in the dark. However, I imagine that after the attack Lucy made her mind. While she was alone after the attack, she must have thought about it a lot and finally make her decision to stay and in a way justify what they did to her. What proves that her decision was well thought out before letting David out of the bathroom is when she says, "You tell what happened to you, I tell what happened to me (99)." She was not going to let David say what he never saw, and what he would never understand. Also when she says, "Why should I live here without paying?(158)". She brings us back to the thought that this would be her sacrifice in order to stay, that if being raped was a way of paying what before African people suffered she would do it. Lucy somehow thinks that her father would never understand her situation for the simple fact that he is a man. Lucy makes a remark against David in page 158. She tells him that he must know that some men when having sex reach pleasure when they show hate towards the woman, using her and marking her forever. But David avoids what she says, which make us connect David to the men, they are not exactly the same but have acted toward women in an improper way to have their needs taken care of. David does not like Lucy's decisions.. Lucy is very comprehensive, passive, and docile, but also a strong independent woman. She is what David likes a woman, but cannot handle seeing it in her daughter. Lucy even lets Pollux the young man who raped her live next to her house, and says absolutely nothing. She appears to follow her decisions and try to forget the situation she was in, in a more logic and comprehensive way, even if not even the reader understands how she could let it go so easily.
Well-written blog! This is what has happened in the story. You've pinpointed an event and stayed focus on it, which makes this blog reasonable and makes Lucy's story more appealing.
ReplyDeleteYou also have a very good analysis. However, in the end you say David likes a woman who is strong and independent, can you back that up? Remember all the women David encountered at the beginning? Almost none of them are strong and independent...maybe except Dawn, the secretary, which he tries to avoid at work after the sexual encounter.
I like the development in your version of Lucy’s story. You went from talking about her hatred and fear, and went through her thought process to get to Lucy’s final conclusion that she deserves this and she must accept it as her punishment. I like when you have Lucy say it is about her and not David because this is something we would never hear from David. In your analysis, you explain her thought process and are very clear in showing that Lucy is an individual and not a “minor character” in David’s life. I think this is exactly how Lucy felt towards David and that she was ready to accept what happened to her, even if David was not. I think your story and analysis were well thought out, and you pinpointed Lucy’s feelings toward the rape and David.
ReplyDeleteYou really like the story that you create for Lucy. The mentioning of the dogs and how she may have even wound up dead if she had not welcomed them in were points that Lucy character prevails in the text. She too seems to be strong willed and seems to stick to what her decisions, which is why she would not tell David the truth. She had made her decision, and she knew that David couldn't prevent her from thinking otherwise. In your analyzation, you bring specific quotes that support your analyzation. Your quote on the living here without paying emphasizes the key point that she would even think that the rape was some sort of due that she needed to pay. She would then think that this is something that history has brought down upon her. I would say though that I think David saw her more as someone who let the men take power upon her. This is what he likes in women, which is being passive instead of active. This he saw is what his daughter gave these men, and so he hated that idea was present with her. I don't think necessarily it was her being independent that David liked about other women. Overall though, this truly brought Lucy alive in the book and your quotes and analysis support this story.
ReplyDeleteyour story fit exactly what i would think Lucy would be thinking at that time. I think the quotes you used for your analysis was very good. I like how your story also is very well thought out. you started from revealing her thoughts about the dogs and related it to the fear and regret she feels because she let the men into her home and also how you ended with Lucy decision that the men were right to make her pay for living on the land.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the part where you mentioned there's no reason to be mad for what they did to her when he did the same. I believe that Lucy's incident is just a mirror reflection of what he has done and how he handled things.
ReplyDeleteThe story you created in reference to Lucy is well written. I know maybe most women that are placed in this situation would react like this but it seemed to me that Lucy was a stronger character. In the novel she seemed to be distancing herself from David but i think she was trying to be strong and continue with her life. I think that is why she was making it sound like it was her payment to society. But i like the story we definately can not be sure of how she would react because we are after all only aware of her actions through David. This is a very well written blog though. :)
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