I'm at a bit of a loss on what to write about this week. I didn't particularly enjoy this novel very much, if I'm being honest it's probably one of my least favourite reads of the term so far. I found it a bit confusing, I didn't really get the point behind jumping from first to third person, and the overall theme of it bothered me a little. I think some things can have nuance in them, but underage child sexual exploitation should always be read as the exploitation that it is. In the lecture, there was a bit of back and forth about how her lover was almost the vulnerable, childlike one where it was to the point of who was using who, but at the end of the day, I still think she is a child and he is an adult. In addition, the social and racial components within the novel made it even more uncomfortable for me. Don't get me wrong, I think it's important to write about issues of exploitation as these things do actually happen, however, I think they should be written about from the perspective that it is wrong. Around halfway through the book when "the lover" and her family meet I also had issues as she doesn't speak a word to him in her family's presence, and then he essentially ignores her. While this part is written in the first person, I didn't see the point in including her family's complacency in this love affair in the presence of her lover. Nevertheless, it is interesting how her mother is silent when in the presence of her lover, but yells, hits, and shames her over it in the privacy of their home.
I think this just speaks to another level of exploitation shown through poverty and class. What Jon mentioned in the lecture about how this book has changed over time with the original character of the lover being white is also a fascinating point expanding on this. It made me think about the factor that race plays in this dynamic of whether or not the exploitation was perceived as wrong (again, I still think it is, but for the sake of this class, I'll entertain the argument). At the end of the day, race does definitely play a factor, but this novel was more nuanced as ultimately the lover was still in a financial position of power and she was not, not to mention the role that age plays in this as well. In the lecture, Jon says that both have power over each other, but again I'd have to disagree. At the end of the day, she is still a lot younger and poorer than he is. She was in a more vulnerable position and he abused that.
Question for the class: How would your opinion of this novel have changed if her lover had remained white as in a former version of the text? Do you think if her lover was a different race the power dynamic would have come across differently?
