Alice Sebold Lucky Analysis

In “Crime and Punishment: The saga of Richie Parker” published in Sports Illustrated, Gary Smith helps to explain just how many people are affected by a single sexual assault case. He does this in a very unique style by giving 12 sections explaining the incident from different points of view and the effects of a single crime. One person affected was Jill Agostino, the sports copy editor for Newsday. Her unnamed colleague had given her a copy of an article he was writing on Richie Parker and called asking if she liked it. Little did he know, stories like his were keeping her up at night, reminding her of the time she was raped nine years earlier. Agostino was enraged because people were sticking up for Parker, saying things like, “boys will

What does it mean to be accepted? Acceptance plays a big role in our everyday lives. It gives us motivation and helps increase our self-esteem. It’s also provides a sense of belonging and a no judgement zone if mistakes are made which decreases the anxiety one might have. Everyone has a purpose in life and fitting in somewhere helps you identify what that purpose is.

In the memoir, Lucky by Alice Sebold, the author flashes back to her experience of rape and abuse on her college campus. She demonstrates her triumph of a traumatizing experience and how she overcame the situation. The novel, explores her experiences after the rape as the traumatic event changed her as well as a transformation from the treatment of others. Throughout this essay, I will summarize the major events of the rape, the aftermath, reactions and experiences that the author discussed and give critical insight of my reaction to the novel.

One out of every six women has been sexually assaulted either completed (14.8%) or attempted (2.8%) in her entire lifetime. Imagine of the those women was a 15 year old girl attending high school, who had a lot to offer, but was periodically silenced, while battling a mental illness in a fictional novel called Speak. The novel speak and the articles we read outside of class have a lot in common including sexual assault stereotypes, sexual violence statistics, and mental illness. Next, I will compare the character Melinda with the four articles.

Shame and guilt can go hand in hand, as seen in; Flight, The Glass Castle, and The Joy Luck Club. As the three novels progress, many of the characters suffer with inner shame and guilt. While the characters suffer with these things, it somehow seems to shape and change them. Through the characters hardships and struggles, the theme of shame and guilt emerges.

The most common, widespread epidemic in adolescent is the lack of self-esteem. If a teen loses confidence, they may engage in self-destructive views. To try to combat the lack of personal confidence, Canada and other individualistic countries emphasize being unique. In the short story, The Metaphor by Budge Wilson, Charlotte lives under the rule of her stern mother. Through her mother’s criticisms, her lack of confidence, and her desire to fit in with the community, Charlotte is shown to be insecure.

A person 's identity can be affected by many things, loss, pain, and the people around them. These things could not be more evident, in Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. Melinda is a 15 year old girl who has experienced a series of traumatizing events, that cause her to change completely as a person. The summer before her freshman year she was raped. Drunk, dazed and violated she called the police on the huge party she was at. She soon developed a case of post traumatic stress disorder. Melinda became closed off and stopped talking. She never told anyone about her rape. All of her old friends rejected her after the call to the police. Desperate for friends, Melinda meets Heather. Heather craves popularity that Melinda can far from provide. Heather, like so many other abandons Melinda. Rachel her ex best friend became someone totally different, she even started dating Andy Evans. The boy who raped Melinda. Things get progressively worse for Melinda before she decides she needs to tell

Budge Wilson, in “The Metaphor,” writes about Ms. Hancock, a beloved teacher. Charlotte writes a metaphor in seventh grade relating her mother to a cold, grey building. When Wilson writes about Ms. Hancock, she describes her as being colorful and warm. Charlotte saw Ms. Hancock more as a mother figure than her own mother. However, when Ms. Hancock stops being her teacher, Charlotte starts to become more like her mother. Although, when Ms. Hancock dies, she breaks free of the hold of her mother and is “born” a new person. In the end, Charlotte realizes that adults can not see the beauty in people like Ms.Hancock, yet children can. Through juxtaposition, symbolism, and irony, Wilson describes Charlotte’s self-realization of life.

The old saying is don’t judge a book by it’s cover and I think that is a lesson that we all should know. Society sucks nowadays because if you don’t have the right clothes or the right car or the right amount of money then you are an outcast. Well let me tell you it is okay to be an outcast. If you want to be like Hester Prynne then go for it. If you want to be like one of the girls from the Crucible then do it. The main point of this paper is don’t let people judge you if they don’t know you. Be you.

Children in the age range thirteen to fifteen are often transitioning through a critical time of their lives. They frequently look to others as a cicerone on how they themselves should act. In the novel, Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, Melinda Sordino calls the cops on an end-of-summer party at which she was raped. The novel depicts Melinda’s excursion as to how she copes with the heart-wrenching events that have affected her momentously as well as creating “[a] frightening and sobering look at the cruelty and viciousness that pervade much of contemporary high school life.” (Kirkus Reviews, Pointer Review). The tragic event along with the rejection of her friends took a rather large toll on Melinda Sordino, in which, at one point, she stops

The book Missoula shares stories of five women who were sexually assaulted at the University of Montana, Missoula and follows their cases all the way to trial. As a girl who has always been told that a college education is necessary to succeed in life, the idea that colleges arent safe for me felt like a secret that I wasnt allowed to know until I experienced it for myself. Reading the statistics and seeing how all of the rapists walked away unpunished strengthened my understanding of the fact that sexual assault is a normal occurance on college campuses. After

One out of five females in the United States are sexually assaulted by a male at some point in their lifetime (Hildebrand & Najdowski, 2015, p. 1059) and college aged females are four times more likely to be a victim of rape than any other age group (Burnett et al.,

In her personal narrative, “Context” (1994), Dorothy Allison explores the ways in which the context of her life impacted her childhood and adult life. She also shows that when context is not fully understood, it can often create a gap between people who have different backgrounds. Dorothy Allison uses comparisons, flashbacks, and gives examples from personal experience to support her claims. She describes scenes from her life in order for readers to recognize how context gives people the facility to understand others and have distinct perspectives of others. She targets the general public as her audience for this piece of writing.

The power of the voice is underrated. The ability to speak up for oneself is a vital tool, and without this ability, one is powerless. Victims of rape are often left voiceless. Laurie Halse Anderson tells the story of a silenced rape victim, Melinda, in her realistic-fiction novel Speak. Melinda is raped by an older boy at a party the summer before her freshman year of high school. The impacts of this event are socially and psychologically devastating for Melinda. Her declining mental health renders her physically unable to speak about being raped over the summer. She is unable to cope with her trauma, and forced to suffer alone. However, she eventually becomes empowered to speak up for herself and about her experience. The novel emphasizes how

Speak, written by Laurie Halse Anderson, is a literary handbook that youth can read to learn about the struggle with coping from trauma inflicted by being sexually assaulted. When a person experiences this type of trauma it can be frightening to blindly live through the after affects. During certain phases of life people tend to rely on different interpersonal relationships as a way to cope with major life events. The process of coming forward after being assaulted, can be an intimidating part of the incident due to the amount of added stress it can bestow on an already stressed out victim. Speak allows the reader to learn about the process of coping with being raped as well as the effects on interpersonal relationships and what to expect when