Questions About The Red Word

by Sarah Henstra (Goodreads Author)

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Answered Questions (1)

What is the point the author is trying to make? I'm not clear on it. I believe there is a fraternity rape culture that is accepted though the young men probably rationalize that it is not rape. What are the chances of changing this culture and how would one go about it? I found the book thought provoking and disturbing.

Guy McElwaine Perhaps she lays it all out for us in her opening lines: "O sing of the American student body, glorious and young. We are the future!...We are all gid…morePerhaps she lays it all out for us in her opening lines: "O sing of the American student body, glorious and young. We are the future!...We are all giddy and hyperventilating in the superoxygenated atmosphere of attention and information and privilege and power. We all thought we were different but we weren’t. ...For the rest of our lives we would yearn for this feeling of exigency and belonging and fullness and passion. From here on in, it would be nostalgia."

Compressing that, the American frat/sor system enables extravagant behavior that its participants will never find possible again in their lives.(less)

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Unanswered Questions (1)

Does anyone know if this is inspired by a specific incident at all? I recently re-binged old seasons of Veronica Mars and watched the episodes that reference almost the exact same incidents with the shaved heads (i.e. feminists/newspaper and fraternity/rape culture conflict).

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