FREE ESSAY ON FEAR-VS-JUSTICE

FEAR-VS-JUSTICE

Fear-vs-Justice
Have you ever been in a situation where you had something horrible happen in
your life that you needed to do something about, but in order to do something about it,
you
had to confront the problem and that caused you pain and more troubles? I believe that
to
be the underlying conflict in Adrienne Rich's "Rape". The main character who the
speaker is talking to first is a woman who has been sexually violated. She is a victim of
a
heinous and very private, embarrassing crime. The officer that she has reported her
situation to is a policeman who patrols her area and who her family knows and trust. Her
family is very close to this officer, for "he comes from your block, grew up with your
brothers.(2)" She doesn't know him that well though, which makes her telling him about
the incident that much more painful and uncomfortable. She gives him all the details of
the crime and about her assailant. She has the idea that the cop may have been her
rapist. 
The woman has a certain bit of suspicion about the officer, but she is not sure. "Rape"
is a
poem about a woman who is reporting a case of rape to a policeman who may just be the
criminal responsible for the offense himself. 
The violated woman isn't convinced that the policeman is the rapist, but the
speaker defiantly suspects him. The rape victim knows very little about the criminal in
question, so the speaker tells the reader about the incident, the evidence, and about
enough
facts to let them come up with there own suspect. The first statement made by the
speaker
is "There is a cop who is both prowler and father.(1)" When he says "prowler" the reader
automatically considers the officer to be a suspect, even before any background is given
on
him. This is a very important line in the poem. It expresses that the policeman is both
a
prowler and a father figure. He is suppose to be an ally against crime and problems on
his
beat. The role of a policeman is to protect the innocent from criminals and evils. But
who
protects you when officers of the law are corrupt and are involved in unlawful actions? 
There is also another line in this paragraph that the reader could interpret to be
incriminating. The speaker says the "You hardly know him in his boots and silver badge,
on horseback, one hand touching his gun.(4-5)" Since she doesn't know him that well
anyway, maybe instead of seeing him as an officer of the law, she sees him as her
assailant. 
The middle few stanza get a little more confusing. The second stanza tells of how
intimidating and powerful the policeman is. The third stanza is where the woman takes
her problems and concerns to the officer. The forth stanza is quite intriguing. It starts
off
with a description the cop's eyes, a very soothing image. Its the last verse of this
stanza
that takes a turn of suspicion against the officer. The thought of the "the hysteria in
your
voice pleases him best(20)" makes the reader believe that he is the rapist, a person who
would enjoy such a thing. 
The last stanza contains some good closing thoughts. It is also interesting because
it sounds like the speaker changes who he is addressing. This is obvious in the first
line of
this stanza when the speaker says "He has access to the machinery that could get you put
away.(26)" The woman wouldn't get put away, for she hasn't done anything wrong. The
speaker is now talking to the rapist. The speaker later talks about what the rapist says
as
being "like a portrait of your confessor.(29)" In these latter moments of this poem,
maybe
the woman is unsure of who violated her.
"Rape", by Adrienne Rich, is a poem about a woman who was violated. At first
the reader suspects the policeman as her rapist, then it seems like she suspects someone
else. After writing this paper, I come up with another possible theory. I believe that
no
one she knows is her rapist, she just sees all males as possible rapist and feels scared
and
threatened by them.