Reading Response 3/11

                                                            The Girl with the Blackened Eye

This story had me guessing until the very end. It had me engaged and interested until the very end. The main character was very powerful when describing the details of the story she made you feel as if you were there. She gave vivid details about what had happened to her, what she witnessed and also her surroundings. "He was gone, and he came back. He left me tied in the bed, it was a cot with a thin mattress, very dirty" (Oates, 201). Giving this kind of detail the reader is able to in vision the setting where this is all taking place. The story is described in a way that is thrilling.

"This was the forcible abduction. How it might be described by a witness who was there, who was also the victim. But who hadn't any memory of what happened because it happened so fast, and she hadn't been personally involved" (Oates, 201). This passage had me thinking of what I would do if I was to witness an abduction. Not really being able to get a good look at what happened and being helpless in how to help without being caught in the middle myself. It really opens your eyes to know that this could happen to anyone anywhere at any time. The descriptions the character shares are those of someone that could have only been in that sort of situation. The feelings and thoughts that are expressed make you shiver and feel so bad for the character.

The descriptions the character gives as to the forcible abduction of the red-haired women gives the reader a visual of what the abduction of the red-hair women was like through the eyes of the main character she was able to give detail and description to really give the reader a sense of how the kidnapper was able to lure his victim. "I felt a rush of anger for this women, contempt, disgusted, how stupid she was, unsuspecting, bending to peer at me where possibly she'd been told the man's daughter was sitting, maybe he'd said  his daughter has a question for her? needed an adult female's advice? and in an instant she would find herself shoved forward onto the front seat of the car, down on her face, her chest, helpless, as fast as you might snap your fingers, too fast for her to cry out" (Oates, 206).  Not having time to react and having no idea of what was coming would be the scariest feeling in the world. The author was able to have the character describe this through the eyes of the main character. It was very powerful in the sense of the reader becoming so engaged with what will happen next. The character was very detailed in how she was able to describe the whole ordeal and what she had to go through.