Dex vs. The truth

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.