Leonard Pitts Column Fix Analysis

Lucky by Alice Sebold’s is a memoir in which she speaks about her traumatic experience that she went through during her freshman year at Syracuse University in New York. Alice was beaten and raped one night when she was walking alone back to her dorm. A black male grabbed her from behind with a knife and told her that he would kill her if she screamed. The black male took Alice into a tunnel where he beat her up and forced her to perform oral sex on him. Alice was still a virgin prior to the rape. After the black male raped Alice, he showed feelings of remorse, he helped Alice put her clothes back on. Alice lied and told him that it was okay and that she forgave him. Alice reports the incident to the police and the officer tells Alice that she should consider herself lucky because a girl had been killed in the same place where she was raped. The rape took a toll on Alice because she seemed to pretend like it was okay when it was not. She started seeing everything differently, every black male she came across she would be reminded of her rapist. Alice also experienced trouble in relationships with men because she did not consider herself to be worthy of any good guy because no guy would want her since she was a rape victim. Alice expressed anger towards her rapist when she runs into him again one afternoon and he approaches her and says that she looked familiar. Alice speaks about wanting to kill her rapist. Alice’s rapist is taken into custody and they have a

Krakauer uses this quote because in every situation he writes about, there is a common element of false allegations being made. In his writing he shares several occurrences with the reader, and while each are similar, there are also notable differences between them. This is because, as stated in the article quoted “Rape is unique,” not only is rape different from other crimes by nature, but each case is surrounded by its own unique circumstances. In each situation that is discussed in the book, Krakauer gives many details of rape, and he explains to readers what the characters went through.

Reading these reports have disrupted my thought process; insofar, flashes of my daughter, sisters and all the females in my life, cannot imagine them ever being gang raped. By the way, wouldn’t this entire ordeal caused psychological trauma? There is no question whether the event happen, but the result of the rape created a major uproar and lives were ended. Mrs. Floyd was certainly traumatized, she reported to the police being raped thirteen times as if thirteen men actually raped her, then she only identified seven men. Please help me clarify this report. It was dark, and in a state of trauma she reported being raped thirteen times by thirteen men. How can she recall being raped that much time while in a state of shock, then to top it off, she identified only seven men who alleged raped her in the dark? But it was dark! Was she wearing night vision goggles? And how could she remember the faces in the dark while in a traumatized condition? There are still missing information and numerous unanswered questions were ignored. Eventually, those seven men receive the death penalty via the electric chair.

In a crescendo of pain, devastation and hysteria, the girl mentions her terror in reliving the rape when going through the justice system. Juxtaposed with the "jaws rasp[ing] on the naked bone", the questioning is yet another violation

Inga Muscio is a very influential writer. Over the years she has earned tremendous credibility within the feminist world. In the chapter, “Rape not Cunt,” from her well known book Cunt, a Declaration of Independence, Inga passionately writes of her feelings about violence against women. She attempts to use rhetoric and captures the reader with a call of action to help prevent further violence against women. However, although Inga Muscio had many valid points about violence against women, her rhetoric does not appeal to all audiences.

In Lucky, Alice Sebold shows how her life was utterly changed when she was brutally raped and beaten in a park near campus as a college freshman when she was eighteen-year-old, how she struggled to be understood by the people around, from family to her friends, and how she tried to recover from the physical and psychological trauma and finally triumphed, getting the attacker arrested and convicted. Just as written in the book, "You save yourself or you remain unsaved."(Sebold, 54)

And lastly, the complicated issues of dealing with the sexual and physical nature of an attack on one’s self would be terrifying and change a person forever. Though each girl experiences distinctly different events, each event vividly shows the loss of innocence the girl is involved in and that it will forever change

A trait that stands out in the book is the symptom of bodily memories. In Melinda’s case, during a frog dissection in her science class, she remembers the opening up and even says, “She doesn’t say a word. She is already dead. A scream starts in my gut – I can feel the cut, smell the dirt, feel the leaves in my hair.” (81). One of the other symptoms that Melinda has is self-harm. The first time that this is shown in the book, Melinda says this, “I open up a paper clip and scratch it across the inside of my left wrist. Pitiful. If a suicide attempt is a cry for help, then what is this? A whimper, a peep?” (87). Melinda also has a hard time talking to her parents about the rape to which she says, “How can I talk to them about that night? How can I start?” (72). Some victims recover from such a traumatic experience, while others don’t and live a lifetime of depression and must undergo intense therapy. In Melinda’s case, she finds redemption by talking to her parents and the guidance counselor, and putting her faith into her teachers, friends, and her art project at school. Because rape can affect anybody anywhere, everyone should be aware of the circumstances, and how to deal with it.

Every 98 seconds, an American is sexually assaulted. Over 300,000 victims are raped and sexually assaulted in the United States annually. Each one of these victims faces emotional distraught for many years to come, including Melinda, the main character of Laurie Halse Anderson’s novel, Speak. However, at the end of the novel, Melinda resolves her internal conflict by speaking about her complications. Sadly, not enough people speak up about sexual abuse and live their lives in internal conflict.

This was not the first time I had heard about sexual assault, yet in some way it hit home more than anything else. My parents had talked to my sister and I more than once about how to be safe and what to do if we were raped. Yet it seemed so far away, I always thought it could not be me. Yet The Hunting Ground, made it all so more real, that it easily could be

The judge faced criticism from the public for his decision to sentence Turner to jail for only six months. Rather than face continuous criticism, it would be in Persky’s best interest to step down from his position as a judge. In “A Judge’s Recall Is Warranted for an Indecent Sentence” William G. Otis of Georgetown University Law Center mentions that regardless of how earnest and well-founded a sentence is, if the public disagrees, the judge's removal is warranted. The reason why Judge Persky faces such criticism is because as a result of his choices, he ignored Turner’s victim’s sense of security and safety. The emotional and mental scars of the victim could not be eased because “[t]here is a difference [...] between judicial independence

Paglia’s unsympathetic comparison of a car being stolen because the keys were left on the hood of the car to a girl being raped because she drank alcohol is preposterous. The loss of a vehicle is mild in comparison to the theft of a woman’s most intimate possession. Sure, you may have lost your means of transport but a stolen car can be recovered, or a new vehicle purchased upon receiving funds from the insurance provider. A rape victim goes through many psychological and emotional changes. They often blame themselves and feel unclean. Their relationships and trust of other males in their life may be terribly altered also. In many cases, victims are haunted by the memories of the actual act. Depression and an addiction to pain pills may also be acquired as a way to escape from and alleviate the painful memories. Plenty of date rape cases are unreported because the victim feels that she will be harshly judged.

In the riveting documentary Audrie & Daisy, husband and wife director team Bonnie Cohen and Jon Shenk retrace the events leading up to the harrowing sexual assaults of three teenaged girls; Audrie Pott, Daisy Coleman, and Paige Parkhurst, and expose the agonizing after effects and exploitation of the assaults. Subsequent interviews with family members, friends and law enforcement officials give important details about the aftermath of the events, and introduce viewers to possibly the biggest villain of all, Sherriff Darren White of Maryville, Missouri. Throughout the documentary White appears smug while he states that “as County Sheriff, “the buck stops here” (Darren White), and when asked about the crimes committed by Maryville’s football star, he rebuts with “was there a crime?” (Darren White) As the film moves through the twists and turns of the cases, the settings, conflicts, and tragedies are enhanced by the use of montage, long and subjective shots, close-ups and personal sketches that submerge the audience into the victim’s point of view. At the conclusion of the film, the viewer is left to decide what constitutes sexual assault and rape, and if society and law enforcement are to blame for the today’s ‘rape culture’ acceptance and the continued victimization of young girls. It also reveals how much can be hidden from parents, and how disconnected parents become from their children in a social media world.

Some might be outraged at the notion that rape is not to be considered a tragedy. It is, of course, a horrific act. One that inflicts so much damage that it can cause PTSD type triggers in survivors. Rape is a before/after moment, people who experience it begin to think of how life was before and now after the event. For instance, with the character Salima, her life before the incident included a loving family with her “good husband” (35) and

Patricia Lockwood’s The Rape Joke is a risky composition- not because it discloses information about Lockwood’s personal rape experience, but because it does so from a comedic stance, ridiculing the unfortunate event and the events leading up to and after it. While the creation of the poem was prompted due to the sexual assault she experienced, the content and subject are not centered around the incident or the assaulter but around rape culture and the sociological concept of victim blaming, from both society and oneself. There is no such thing as a rape joke-the joke is the incredulous ways society has guided people to respond to it.