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Rape - a Love Story

In: Novels

Submitted By rotfrukten
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The book (that’s written by Joyce Carol Oates in mid-2000 and republished in 2005) kicks off by introducing the main characters Betty and Teena Mcguire. Teena was a vibrant woman in her early 30’s until a horrible incident struck her that would affect not only her family but the entire community. After being brutally raped by a gang of criminal teenagers who were high on drugs her daughter Betty was left with huge responsibilities, from taking care of her wounded mother to struggling for justice against the people who did her mother wrong. The case is led by a policeman that’s also a former military soldier named John Droomor; he was the man that found Teena lying naked and torn on the floor of the boathouse. The book consists of three parts where each part tells the tale from different people and perspectives. The first part starts the tale with the actual rape and some insight on how the people think of Teena but apart from that the entire chapter is fairly uneventful. The second chapter is all about the solving of the case from Droomors perspective and how Betty wants her mother to stand up for herself and put the people who did the horrible deed behind bars. And lastly the third part is more of an epilogue where some is left to be answered and the main protagonists moving on.

Because of the omniscient style of perspectives you could say that the book has a few different main characters. These I would say are Teena, Betty and Droomor as they are the ones (apart from the suspects) that were affected the most by the raping of Teena. Teena was told to be a vibrant and lively woman in her 30’s, she was outgoing and liked to dress up for parties and other events, although a lot of people in her surrounding believed that she dressed up a little too much for her own good as they believed that it was her clothes that attracted the rapists. After the rape

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