Chidiebube Nwadiogbu
English 1100
November 5th, 2017
Prof. Young
Friendswood
In the fictional book, Friendswood by Rene Steinke, Willa (a
character in the book) goes through a situation where she is sexually
assaulted by a group of boys. Willa was raped at the Lawbourne's house when she
skipped school to go to a party with Cully. At the party, she drank alcohol to
impress Cully and she experienced a memory black out. When she woke up, she was
subjected to shame and regret when the word "SLUT" was written on her
body. Dex, who is another character in the book, was also at the party.
However, he left early when he found out that Willa was the one who was
upstairs with Cully. After that day, Willa was further shamed and humiliated
when rumors started spreading in school and the guidance counselor told her to
not come back for a few days. At this point, Willa is very emotional and upset
about what happened at the party. Even though Dex did not stay at the party the
entire time, he should be the one to stand up for Willa because he knows that
she was drunk and not in the right state of mind to consent to having sex with
Cully and the other boys.
I can understand why Dex doesn't want to snitch on his so-called
friends. However, he does need to come forward and say something because
Willa's reputation and feelings are ruined over this situation. Dex obviously
knows that what the boys did was the wrong thing to do. Yet he still struggles
in finding his voice and standing up at the moment. Instead of standing up for
Willa at the party and going upstairs to stop everything,"Dex thought he wouldn't say good-bye, just leave" (Steinke 104). He runs away and
hopes that he can just forget what happened. Dex's lack of courage led to Willa
being raped by even more people. With his action, I am sure he has guilt within
his heart. To get rid of that guilty conscience he needs to make things right
by supporting Willa and telling others what truly happened.
In the video "Power of Vulnerability," which is attached below, Rene Steinke talks about how vulnerability plays a factor in our relationships. As Steinke said in her video, "we pretend that what we do does not have an effect on other people". Dex left the scene because he believed that he had no power in stopping what had already started. Even when he knew it was Willa that was upstairs he forced himself to believe that it was not her. This pretense that he had was at the expense of Willa's safety.
Overall, Dex knows that the boys were in the wrong of the situation. Willa could not consent to sexual intercourse because she was drunk and not in the right state of mind. Although some might say that Dex may not have known how drunk Willa was, that can be disputed because of Snow's statement. Snow, one of the group of boys that was present at the party, stated "You know, Willa Lambert? Seems like she has a few drinks in her, for sure" (Steinke 103). All the boys knew that she was drunk, yet they did nothing to stop what happened and what was going on. This is why Dex owes it to Willa to speak up for her now by saying the full story.
