Quotation:

“‘But at the time—did you regret it at the time?’

‘At the time? Do you mean in the heat of the act? Of course not. In the heat of the act there are no doubts.’” pg 145

“‘Hatred… When it comes to men and sex, David, nothing surprises me anymore. Maybe, for men, hating the women makes sex more exciting. You are a man, you ought to know. When you have sex with someone strange—when you trap her, hold her down, get her under you, put all you weight on her—isn’t it a bit like killing? Pushing the knife in; exiting afterwards, leaving the body behind covered in blood— doesn’t it feel like murder, like getting away with murder?’” pg 155

Comment: Context for the first quote: Bev asked David about his situation before with Melanie. They are discussing it. I flagged this quote because I saw problems with it, this was also pretty much the first time he had discussed it with a stranger. When he says he didn’t regret it even in the moment because he had no doubts… I specifically remember his doubts. He had done it more than once. He had asked himself if what he was doing was okay, if it was right or wrong. He doubted the passion that he felt, because he knew that Melanie lacked desire, but she still gave consent which makes it “not quite rape” but “undesired nonetheless.” It bothers me that he can’t admit that he had doubts even in the heat of the act. 

Context for the second quote: Lucy and David are driving back to the farm after going to the police to see if he could get his car. They are going back and forth arguing about the rape. Lucy tells him that he can’t understand it and David continues to explain that he understands all too well. Then Lucy goes on talking about the 3 men and people like them and how they all “do rape.” Then she explains what they do and why they do it and how they feel while they do it, which is the quote. I flagged this because it was really powerful to me. Hard to read yes, but I couldn’t take my eyes away. She is describing rapists and what they do and why like it. I also think part of her uses the murder analogy because she may feel like they have killed a piece of her. She changes a bit after the rape which is what leads me to think this. It was just such a powerful section, I couldn’t not flag it.

Question: Is this a glimpse at how Melanie had felt? (second quote)

Post Class Reflection:


My spoken contributions today (bullets, fragments, keywords)		Helping Hands Today (up to 3) – Name & Briefly Describe Contribution to Class (bullets, fragments, keywords)
~Lucy’s perspective sheds light on Melanie’s perspective
~women as minor characters is a statement from Lucy to her dad & a statement from the author














~Anna: internal vs external
~Haley: black vs whute hatred
~Maeve: conversations will go differently because David wasn’t present as a father

Today’s class discussion altered my thoughts about today’s text(s) in the following ways (link to your QCQ and/or to other ideas):

Today’s class discussion went really well. Anna first started us off by sharing her quote which was the same quote I had (second quote). It was interesting to hear what Anna had to say about it. I had mentioned that I had the same quote but I had looked at it in light of Melanie. The way the Lucy was describing this sex and the way that she was feeling made me think of Melanie and how she had felt after she had met David. David had basically raped Melanie even though that’s not exactly how it was described. We never get to hear exactly how Melanie is feeling. So to hear the other side of the rape story from a woman’s point of view lead me to believe that this could be a version of Melanie was feeling or what she may have been thinking. Haley had mentioned that the reason the rapists had hated Lucy so much was because of the hatred between blacks and whites. I believe this could be true, I also believe that David was suggesting some racism when he mentioned “ancestry.” It could be meant in another direction but I picked up just a hint of racism when I read that. When Maeve brought up how conversations between Lucy and David, especially their conversation about the rape and pregnancy, are going to go differently because David wasn’t always present as a father. Fathers who are not their for a lot of your life are going to act/react differently, especially in a conversation like this, and I completely agree. I believe David ould be holding back on Lucy a little bit 1) because she’s a grown up and on her own now and 2) he wasn’t there for all of her life.