In the book Friendswood, Willa is a 15 year old girl in high school whose life gets turned upside down when she gets rapped. Willa is a smart and nerdy girl who is not popular. She comes from a religious family. Willa likes poetry and her favorite author is Emily Dickinson. Willa was head over heels for Cully who is the popular high school football player. One day, Cully brings Willa to the Lawbourne’s house with a bunch of other guys and there were no other girls besides her. At the Lawbourne’s house, Willa gets drugged and then rapped. Willa was a virgin before this whole thing happened. When she woke up, she realized that she was all alone. She knew that she was being taken advantage of and no one tried to prevent it. Willa is traumatized from what happened to her.
There needs to be someone to bring attention to what happened to Willa and that should be her mother. Willa’s mother tried to help her without even know the full story. Her mother brought her to a doctors office to try and figure out what had happened over at the Lawbourne’s house. The doctor examined her and of course, she knew what had occurred just from the examination . She tried asking Willa if she knew who did this to her, but Willa claimed that she didn’t remember. Soon after the visit with the doctors, Willa had told her mother what she remembered and what she assumed to have happened. Her mother was there for her in her time of need.
For starters, her mother arranged for Willa to be put on home study so that she didn’t have to go to school and deal with all the kids there. A substitute teacher would come once a week to help her with assignments. Willa had no desire of going back to school. The book stated, “But Willa was glad not to have to go back to school, which seemed like a building full of booby traps catching those who fall through them in little, dark closets” (Steinke 162). Willa felt that school was not a safe place for her to be. Her mom is there for her in her time of need and will help her through this in any way possible.
In the end, Willa’s mother needs to speak up for Willa about the rapping. This is something that should not be kept a secret. Who ever did this to Willa needs to pay for their actions. They took advantage of a sweet, young girl. Her mother is the only one who really knows what happened to Willa. Her mother should bring this situation up to the police because nothing about this was okay. This is something that will affect Willa for the rest of her life. Willa’s mother already started helping Willa out in any way that she could. This should be made into a legal case because Willa was taken advantage of by older guys and then woke up not even knowing what had happened to her. Her mother should be the one to bring it up to attention.
You know Caitlyn, I was shocked too that the mother did not stick up for Willa. Actually, I was disappointed.
ReplyDeleteAt any rate, you've done a good job of developing your idea that Willa's mother should have supported her.
--Prof. Young