Girl With the Blackened Eye
Blaming the victim, blaming the self:
"the Girl With the Blackened Eye" by Joyce Carol Oates
Why do women stay with men who abuse them? This question has been asked time and time again, of celebrities as well as ordinary people. In her story "The Girl With the Blackened Eye," author Joyce Carol Oates sees low female self-esteem as one of the reasons women are abused and often do not actively resist their abuse. Society implicitly assumes that a woman with an abusive man 'deserves what she gets' and this perception creates an almost physical paralysis on the part of the girl of the title. A woman's spirit as well as her body is beaten down by cultural assumptions of how women should behave. The girl is a victim even before she becomes a victim.
In the story "The Girl With the Blackened Eye," the young, female protagonist is abducted and held captive by an older man. The girl is so emotionally victimized and terrorized by the man that she does not resist, even when given the opportunity to escape. At first, the reader is incredulous at this development. However, the girl's passivity is understandable, Oates suggests, given the expectations...
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