Essay Questions

Deconstruct the subtitle: “She had it Coming”.

The subtitle connotes the rifeness of the “ Blame the Victim” mentality which is engaged when judging the fatalities of rape: “Yes she might’ve smile at them , and so she was asking for it…She had it coming, she was asking for it…After she’d gotten herself trapped. After she’d teased them. Provoked them. Bad judgement. Must’ve been drinking. The way she was dressed…Where’s her husband? Doesn’t that woman have a husband? What the hell is she doing out alone with her twelve-year-old daughter, in Rock Point Park at midnight?” Oates investigates the declarations and rhetoric which individuals would pose after learning of Teena Maguire’s rape. Manifestly, Teena would be censured for inviting rapists through her dressing, or drinking or perceived deficiency of morals. The ‘blame the victim’ mind-set exhibits the deficiency of empathy among bystanders which results in rationalization of moral depravities such as rape.

Elucidate the import of the Gulf War in the plot.

Oates writes, “They’d sent him to the Persian Gulf. Operation Desert Shield that became Operation Desert Storm. Only just a few years ago in his life but it seemed longer. In the life of his country, so fast moving and not-looking- back, the Gulf War was nearly forgotten.” Oates employs a Historical Allusion of the “Gulf War” to apprise the reader about the Rookie Cop’s involvement with wars and guns. These background specifics accentuate the cop’s profile.