DQ Week 6

2.Consider the portion of the conversation (the first meeting) in which Carol offers up her reasoning, as it’s implied, for her performance in the class: “No, no, no. I’m doing what I’m told. It’s difficult for me. It’s difficult . . . I don’t . . . lots of the language . . . The language, the “things” that you say . . . It is true. I have problems . . . I come from a different social . . . a different economic . . . No. I: when I came to this school: . . . does that mean nothing . . . ?” (702-703). What is Carol trying to say? Are her points legitimate? (Consider the context in which she’s offering them). Why or why not?

Carol is trying to say that she feels like she cannot understand what John is saying during lectures because she has a different background than him. I think the different background she is trying to explain is not only a background were she grew up were people spoke with intellectual type words and had a higher income, but she is trying to communicate her past troubles to John. She may feel like if she opened up to him a little, he could understand why she is having troubles and maybe take it easier on her. This could give point to the fact that she had already planned to coy the professor into trying to get him to let her get away with the difficulty of the class and not grade her as hard as the rest of the class. Since that does not work she sort of goes and takes on plan B.

9. Consider Carol’s most serious accusation: “You tried to rape me. According to the law. . . . You tried to rape me. I was leaving this office, you “pressed” yourself into me. You “pressed” your body into me. . . . under the statute. I am told. It was battery. . . . Yes. And attempted rape. That’s right” (728). Discuss your reaction to this accusation. As you do, consider carefully Carol’s addition of “according to the law”. Is she, at some or any level, in the right? Is John right to be undone by this accusation?

My reaction to this accusation was a bit foreseen but at the same time I thought it was irrational. It seems like she already had everything planned out if she couldn’t get him to take it easy on her, she could accuse him of rape. She is contradicting herself every time she is talking to the professor. During her fist meeting with John she tells him that she does not understand him and the language he uses during class. At this meeting she persists on stating that he raped her ‘according to the law.’ If she cannot understand the language he uses in class how in the world can she understand what the law has to say. She does say that she was told all this and that gives meaning to the fact that she had already known she could use that as a target on him.