Monday, November 26, 2007

Rape?

The ending of the book is confusing, as I said before in my post earlier. After analyzing the book I figured out that Aunt Helen probably raped Charlie and this is why Charlie is very emotional through out the book. You can figure this out because on page 204 Charlie explains, "When I fell asleep, I had this dream. My brother and my sister and I were watching television with my Aunt Helen. Everything was in slow motion. The sound was thick. And she was doing what Sam was doing. That's when I woke up." Before this page Sam was attempting to put her hand down Charlie's pants. However, Charlie refused and went downhill from there and you don't really understand why. Also, before Charlie's parent's take him to the hospital they find him on the couch naked watching the television when it isn't even on. This shows how Charlie was thinking of the time when he was with his Aunt Helen on the couch. Through out the epilogue it gives hints towards how Charlie was raped. And you know that from the beginning of the book that Aunt Helen's Father's Friend raped her when she was a child. For some reason Charlie gives her sympathy about this and doesn't hate Aunt Helen after what she did to Charlie at such a young age. This is debatable and I would like to know your thoughts.

4 comments:

Noah said...

I just finished this amazing book.
Yes, you're correct. Charlie was indeed raped. Due to the young age that it occurred and the fact that she was his favorite aunt, he developed serious social and emotional disorders.

I personally think that when Sam and Charlie were going to have sex, Charlie was confused because he had a subconscious complex that sex was something that only someone else wanted and that you weren't supposed to partake in it (like when Patrick was kissing him; he didn't want it but Patrick did so he allowed it). Especially if you actually liked the person. I think that in this case, Charlie knew that he deeply loved Sam and didn't want her to feel the same way.
I also think that when she "put her hand down his pants", Charlie was reminded of the time where he was raped by his aunt. Also, he cared for his aunt and he also cared for Sam. So he was confused and his brain shut down, in a way.

Great blog :-). Sad to see that there were no comments before mine.

Lindsay said...

Charlie being molested by his aunt was the conclusion I drew as well, but I did not see it coming at all. It was a surprise for me at the end so I decided to see if anyone else also arrived at that conclusion, and yay, someone did. I am not crazy.

Anonymous said...

The way I typed this in online to Make sure I wasn't the only person with this view. Someone said that two people close to charlie were molested but I don't know who.

Tehya said...

Im guessing the two people close to Charlie that got molested are Sam and his Aunt Helen. At least i think its Sam because she says that her first kiss was with her dads boss when she was 11. Im not positive, but im pretty sure those are the two people