Many of these writings were lost in their electronic version and were retyped from hard copy. I haven't had a chance to proofread and edit the entries the way I would like to. Please forgive formatting inconsistencies and gross errors and typos.
I thought of you today. I walked outside my door, and as I stood in my front yard, I felt the warmth of the sun kissing my skin. Immediately I thought it would be a perfect day to peacefully lounge in beautiful surroundings and escape to a place otherworldly. That’s when I thought of you.
You and I have a dynamic connection that has grown and cultivated slowly and grows ever steady like the mighty oak.
With you, I feel a spiritual connection: the need and desire to help others, to try to achieve a sense of purity in life and who I am, but also an acknowledgment of a darker side—a side that is nefarious and pushes the limits of our priggish society. Few people can simultaneously draw those conflicting sides out of me, and yet make me feel the delicious temptation of the unification of such opposites. You see the most surreptitious side of me—that side society deems uncivilized. I thank you. Although this contradiction has always existed in me, being dictated by societal norms, I have suppressed it. However, you have allowed me to feel free and enlightened. You have taken from me everything I have hidden behind, leaving me completely naked, and as a result, I have been forced to look at myself. How can one know purity without knowing perversion? True ecstasy is the recognition of the two forces and the joining of the two into a rhythmic and harmonious existence.
This exquisite connection that we share has been my muse. I have found the embers of my passions, my sensuality, and my creativity rekindled. What we share is pristine. Not because it is entirely good, but because it acknowledges the dark as well as the light, and that identification alone indicates honesty, and honesty is always pure. Every day I am near you our my thoughts shift to you, I am revisited by the muses, and nothing could be more beautiful.
This understanding of each other is itself spiritual. Though we each maintain a certain mystery about each of us, we have a sacred connection that is empathetic, yet still seeking exploration.
I am both blessed and enchanted by this relationship we share.
In the case of Commonwealth v. Berkowitz, 537 Pa. 143, 641 A.2d 1161 (1994), a female college student entered Robert Berkowitz's dorm room attempting to locate the defendant’s roommate. The defendant encouraged the victim to stay in the room and began to fondle her and attempted to have the victim orally copulate him. He then removed her clothes and vaginally penetrated her. During the time, the victim continuously said, “no,” to the defendant, but she made no attempt to flee and made no attempts to physically protect herself.
Berkowitz was charged with Rape, a Felony 1 offense, and the conviction was reversed. Rape is defined as:
§ 3121. Rape
(a) Offense defined.--A person commits a felony of the first degree when he or she
engages in sexual intercourse with a complainant:
1. By forcible compulsion.
2. By threat of forcible compulsion that would prevent resistance by a person of
reasonable resolution.
* * * (Pennsylvania Statutes, Title 18)
Included in the Pennsylvania sex offenses are the offenses of Aggravated Indecent Assault, a Felony 2. and Sexual Assault, also a Felony 2. Aggravated Indecent Assault is defined as:
§ 3125. Aggravated indecent assault
Except as provided in sections 3121 (relating to rape)… a person who engages in
penetration, however slight, of the genitals or anus of a complainant with a part of the
person's body for any purpose other than good faith medical, hygienic or law enforcement
procedures commits aggravated indecent assault, a felony of the second degree, if:
1. the person does so without the complainant's consent;… .
* * * (Pennsylvania Statues, Title 18)
Sexual Assault is defined as:
§ 3124.1. Sexual assault
Except as provided in section 3121 (relating to rape) or 3123 (relating to involuntary
deviate sexual intercourse), a person commits a felony of the second degree when that
person engages in sexual intercourse or deviate sexual intercourse with a complainant
without the complainant's consent. (Pennsylvania Statutes, Title 18)
Because “forcible compulsion” was not present in this case, Berkowitz should have been charged with Aggravated Indecent Assault and Sexual Assault. This would have provided the prosecution with the chance for a felony conviction, but rather than a Felony 1 conviction, it would have been a Felony 2 conviction.
The Berkowitz case falls into the area of sex crimes, which, as shown above, can be either a misdemeanor or felony, depending on the facts of the case and the charges against the defendant. Typically jurisdiction of sex crimes falls on the state, and definition and penalties are outlined at the state level. Pennsylvania law has a “forcible compulsion” requirement in order to meet the criteria for rape as opposed to other sex crimes that may still involve penetration of the victim.
Berkowitz could not be re-tried in an attempt to convict him of Aggravated Indecent Assault or Indecent Assault, to do so would be allow Berkowitz to use Res Judicata and Collateral Estopple as a defense.
On an emotional level, it is easy to say, “No means no.” However, we must look at the Berkowitz case objectively. Based on the facts, Berkowitz should not have been charged with Rape, but rather Aggravated Indecent Assault, or at a minimum, Berkowitz could have been charged with Indecent Assault. Had the victim even as much as scratched Berkowitz, there may have been a slightly higher chance of a rape conviction. Emotionality of a crime obviously will lie with the victim, his/her family and often the community as well; however, if we are to maintain a fair a just society, we must look at a crime objectively. We cannot force a square peg into a round hole, and if we chip at the hole to make it fit, we are chipping away at the very things that makes this country what it is and affords us the freedoms that we have.
References
Commonwealth v. Fischer. No. 133, Philadelphia, 1998. Retrieved July 28, 2002, from the World Wide Web: http://dpg-law.com/opinions/pa-super/9812/6273-fischer.html.
Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes, Crimes and Offenses, Title 18. Retrieved July 28, 2002, from the World Wide Web: http://www.students.haverford.edu/masar/documents/PARapeLaws.pdf
Juvenile sex offenses have increased in the last decade. In earlier history, children were treated as “mini adults.” It wasn’t until the 1900s that juvenile courts even came into existence, and as late as the 1950s it was recognized that childhood was a “long and powerless phase in the cycle of life” (Empey, Stafford, and Hay, 1999).
Berlinger (1998) states, “The social policy response to adolescents who commit sexual offenses has undergone dramatic change since the early 1980s. Prior to this time, acts of child molestation or rape by teenagers were often dismissed or trivialized. These youth were seldom prosecuted, and treatment programs were rare” (p. 1). Juveniles who committed sex crimes were not required to accept any accountability for their actions (Ryan, et. al, 1996). Unfortunately, it has only been during the last couple of decades that research has been devoted to Juvenile sex offenders (JSOs); therefore, research regarding recidivism rates and many other aspects of juvenile sex offenses do not have the long-term studies behind them that many of the studies of adult sex offenders have.
JSOs do not necessarily develop into adult sex offenders or serial offenders, but most adults who sexually abuse children begin offending in adolescence (Glazer, 1996; Ryan, et. al, 1996; Zolondel, et. al, 2001).
Little research previously existed on JSOs, because the concept of juvenile sex offenders as a classification of offender separate and different from adult sex offenders is new. Only been in the last decade or so has research been devoted to the area. Some of the research is contradictory, and because research is relatively new, little long-term research on recidivism rates, effectiveness of treatment, and rehabilitation exists; therefore, additional research should be devoted to this area of study.
Who Are Juvenile Sex Offenders?
The research surrounding JSOs is relatively small in comparison to research in other areas. Brown and Kolko (1998) state, “there is no universally accepted terminology to describe these children” (p. 8). Brown and Kolko (1998) further state,“…JSAs [Juvenile sexual abusers] are a complex group, experiencing a variety of psychiatric and behavior difficulties. . . .We also have limited empirical understanding of the role of the entire system (i.e., lawyers, judges, probation officers, service providers, teachers, families) in the treatment of JSAs” (p. 1-2).
It is estimated that juveniles are responsible for “15 to 20 percent of all rapes and 30 to 60 percent of child sexual assault cases committed in the United States” (Hunter, 2000, 1). There are many variables when discussing Juvenile Sex Offenders (JSOs). Child maltreatment, social development, sexual knowledge, academic and cognitive development and mental health all factor into the behaviors of a JSO (Righthand and Welch, 2001). Researchers found that of JSOs studied, only “one-third of the juveniles perceived sex as a way to demonstrate love or caring for another person” whereas 25 percent felt sex was a means to “feel power and control,” 9 percent believed sex was an avenue to dispel anger, and 8 percent felt that sex was to “hurt, degrade, or punish” a person (Righthand and Welch, 2001, p. xii).
Juvenile Sex Offenders are typed and classified into the following categories: “naïve experimenters, undersocialized child exploiters, sexual aggressives, sexual compulsives, disturbed impulsives, group influenced, and pseudosocialized” (Righthand and Welch, 2001, p. xiii). Adult serial sex offenders are also typed and classified, as will be discussed later.
Righthand and Welch (2001) state that females have committed more juvenile sex offenses than males, and that there were little differences in the aggressiveness of the offenses between female and male offenders.
Psychology and Characteristics of Sex Offenders
Some researchers have found many similarities between juvenile and adult sex offenders (Berlinger, 1998). Berlinger (1998) states, “They many engage in serious sexual crimes, have multiple victims, exhibit deviant sexual preferences, have comparable cognitive distortions, and lack victim empathy” (p. 1).
It seems that JSOs use coercion more than violence in the commission of their crimes. They appear to only use as much aggression or violence as is necessary to carry out the crime (Zolondel, et. al, 2001), and like adult sex offenders, 33 percent of JSOs blame their victims, and 48 percent stated that when molesting a much younger child (five or more years younger), the younger child either initiated the activity or it was mutual.
Zolondel, et. al, (2001) state that JSOs engage more in fetishisms, obscene phone calls, child molestation and phone sex, whereas adult sex offenders have a higher rate of involvement in zoophilia, exhibitionism, voyeurism, sadism, and use of pornography. Transsexualism and transvestitism were equal for both JSOs and adult sex offenders.
Recidivism Rates Of Sex Offenders
In one study conducted, 37 percent of JSOs committed sexual offenses as adults (Righthand and Welch, 2001). Other research has found that subsequent to a JSOs offenses becoming “public,” recidivism rates are low (Righthand and Welch, 2001), and Zolondel, et. al (2001) state that in the event a JSO commits further offenses following treatment, they will more likely commit non-sexual offenses. Comparing numerous studies of JSOs, it was found that relatively few JSOs were arrested for sex offenses as adults (Righthand and Welch, 2001).
Brown and Kolko (1998) state that first-time, adjudicated JSOs admitted that they had committed anywhere from two to five sexual offenses before being caught, and goes on further, “…an adolescent abuser who continues a paraphiliac pattern into adulthood may perform 380 sexually abusive acts during his lifetime” (p. 2).
Righthand and Welch (2001) mention that some factors can increase recidivism rates for JSOs. “…[A]dolescent sex offenders were probably more likely to reoffend if one or more of the following factors were present: initial offending was pleasurable, consequences for the offense were minimal, the deviant sexual behavior was reinforced through masturbation or fantasy, and/or the offender had social skills deficits” (Righthand and Welch, 2001, p. 32).
Brown and Kolko (1998) state, “…the younger the offender is, the greater the likelihood is of criminal reoffense. In addition, male JSAs who had committed at least one recent sexual offense against boys were somewhat more likely to reoffend than were those who had victimized only girls” (p. 7).
Hunter (2000) states, “fewer than 10 percent of either group of juvenile sexual offenders were under the influence of alcohol or other drugs at the time of the offense” (p. 2) when sexual homicides were committed. Hunter (2000) further indicates that of juvenile sexual killers studied, 28.6 percent of offenders “intentionally tortured their victims,” 42.9 took items from the victim’s house, 14.3 percent involved penis/anal rape, penis/vaginal rape occurred in 42.9 percent of the cases, in 28.6 percent of the offenses, penetration with a foreign object occurred, and a staggering 42.9 of the cases involved post-mortem rape (p. 2). These activities appear very similar to many of the activities of serial adult offenders, with profilers noting many of these same activities when creating a profile.
Treatment and Rehabilitation methods
Researchers have found that parents are losing control of their children, and as they do, the public becomes more in favor of trying violent juvenile offenders as adults. Hunter and Lexier (1998) state, “public disenchantment with the seemingly intractable problem of juvenile violence has led to a “’more punitive, just-desserts juvenile justice model’”(p. 2).
Juvenile sex offenses are increasing. In 1986 there were less than 350 treatment programs for juvenile sex offenders. By 1992, the number had more than doubled to 750 (Hunter and Lexier, 1998). Over the last decade, laws and regulations surrounding the juvenile justice system have dramatically changed. Many states now try juveniles as adults. Hunter and Lexier (1998) state that “[t]he number of delinquency cases waived to the adult criminal courts increased by 71% between 1985 and 1994” (p. 1). Almost half of the states have no minimum age requirements for trying juvenile offenses in adult courts, and some states will permit juveniles to serve sentences in adult facilities. In addition, many states now require juvenile sex offenders to register just the same as adult sex offenders (Hunter and Lexier, 1998).
The Ethan Allen School has a group therapy approach to the rehabilitation of juvenile sex offenders. The offenders work closely with counselors and have writing-intensive assignments. Other segments of the program include “survivors’ group, fathers’ group, “’errors in thinking’” group, men’s work, and video group (Millard and Hagan, (1996).
The Ethan Allen School was developed in 1984, and between 1984 and 1996, participants in the program have been monitored and tracked. The program boasts approximately 20 “graduates” each year. Of graduates of the program, recidivism rates for new sexual offenses are under 10 percent (Millard and Hagan, 1996).
Brown and Kolko, (1998) cite the study of a single subject, an 11-year old male sexual abuser with a “history” of sexual offenses. Treatment was “[b]ased on a functional analysis of problematic social behaviors, [and] social-cognitive skills… (p. 2).” The treatment program had target behaviors in which the offender received treatment, including “use of each skill, modeling, role-playing, feedback, coaching, and didactic discussion” (p. 2). The subject displayed improvements in the areas targeted, as witnessed by staff and peers. It is further cited that the subject’s foster mother, “reported he had not participated in any deviant sexual behaviors.” Brown and Kolko, (1998) further cite the “success” of this single case as raising the question of whether treatment needs to be “sexual abuser specific.”
Here is a question. If adult serial sexual offenders admit to engaging in deviant thoughts and behaviors during adolescence, and this 11-year old child had a “history” of sexual offenses, has he really been effectively treated? The literature states that at a one-year follow-up, his foster mother stated that he had not engaged in deviant behavior. If this child is in the early development of becoming a serial or predatory sexual offender, wouldn’t he have a desire to continue his activities for gratification, and would he willingly confess to his foster mother that he was continuing to offend? This is not to say that the child will develop into an adult serial or predatory sex offender, but due to the lack of research into juvenile sex offenders, and the lack of long-term studies surrounding JSOs, can we dismiss the idea of “sexual abuser specific” treatment, especially when so little long-term research has been done into the adult activities of JSOs.
Conclusion
Much of the research about juvenile sex offenders is relatively new, and often times redundant. It is to be applauded that attention is being given to this growing class of offenders; however, because research into this area is fairly new, long-term studies are not provided. Other areas that should be studied are the types of juvenile sex offenders, any possible parallels between juvenile and adult sex offenders, the various treatment methods and the success or failure of those methods, and long-term recidivism rates for subsequent sex offenses.
Much of the current literature states that juvenile sex offenders are not as likely to commit future sex offenses once they have been brought into “view;” however, due to the lack of long-term studies, can we adequately make that statement? This is especially concerning when the literature states that many juvenile sex offenders, like adult sex offenders, have multiple victims prior to being caught. The more times a person does something, whether it is drugs, traveling a path, cooking a meal, or working on a car, the more proficient they become at it, and the more ingrained it becomes. There is not enough research into long-term recidivism rates of juvenile sex offenders.
The Massachusetts Treatment Center for Sexually Dangerous Persons (MTC) (adult offenders) conducted a 25-year study on recidivism rates of 251 sex offenders. Recidivism rates for these offenders peaked at the 5-10-year mark, but even at 15-25 years following release, recidivism rates for the MTC offenders were higher than the recidivism rates for these same offenders during the first five years following release (National Institute of Justice, 1997). Perhaps if we had an equivalent study with juvenile sex offenders, the data would be different.
Sex offenders, like other criminals are not usually going to confess to additional sex offenses, and it is secrecy that breeds sex crimes like child molestation. A sex offender is even less likely to admit deviant sexual thoughts or behaviors if he/she has previously been convicted for a sex offense.
The current research into the study of juvenile sex offenders is a positive thing; however, because children are not adults and usually don’t have the same mental or reasoning capacities as adults, it would be unfair to treat them as adults, especially those children that are far from the legal age. Nevertheless, they need to be monitored and tracked to 1) adequately develop methods of treatment and rehabilitation, 2) monitor recidivism rates, even as late as 25+ years following release, and 3) to see if there are any parallels between child and adult sex offenses, especially offenses like rape or sexual killings. After all, it is the serial crimes that are the most difficult for investigators to solve, and it would seem that if we really researched the childhood and adolescent years of serial offenders, there would probably be early indicators leading to the serial behaviors.
References
Berlinger, L. (1998). Juvenile Sex Offenders: Should They Be Treated Differently? Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 13:5, 645-646.
Brown, E. and Kolko, D. (1998). Treatment Efficacy and Program Evaluation With Juvenile Sexual Abusers: A Critique With Directions For Service Delivery and Research. Child Maltreatment, 3:4, 362(12).
Empey, L., Stafford, M. and Hay, C. (1999). American Delinquency: Its Meaning and Construction. (4th Ed.). New York: Wadsworth.
Hunter, J. (2000). Juvenile Sexual Homicide. FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, 69:3, 1(7).
Hunter, J. Jr., and Lexier, L. (1998). Ethical and Legal Issues in the Assessment and Treatment of Juvenile Sex Offenders. Child Maltreatment. 3:4 339(10)
Millard, D. and Hagan, M. (1996). Ethan Allen School Rehabilitates Juvenile Sex Offenders. Corrections Today. 58:5 92(4)1
National Institute of Justice. (1997). Child Sexual Molestation: Research Issues. Retrieved May 28, 2002, from the World Wide Web: http://www.ncjrs.org/txtfiles/163390.txt.
Righthand, S. and Welch, C. (2001). Juveniles Who Have Sexually Offended: A Review of the Literature: OJJDP Report. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
Ryan, G., et. al. (1996). Trends in a National Trend of Sexually Abusive Youths. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 35:1, 17(9).
Zolondel, S., et. al. (2001). The Self-Reported Behaviors of Juvenile Sexual Offenders. Journal of Interpersonal Violence. 16:1 73-85.
It seems that there are two primary reasons for a person to write—the first being that of expression, perhaps catharsis, and the second, a desire to be understood, and to take the reader to the same place the writer is at the moment pen meets paper. Few words have grabbed me, spoken to me, moved me, and made me feel as though I myself could have written them the way Nawal El Saadawi’s A Modern Love Letter has mesmerized me—each and every line.
I could easily say that I identify with El Saadawi as a woman, or is it as a human that this parallel is stemmed from? For my own sanity’s sake, I have chosen to decide that it is as an independent and intelligent woman. Intelligent, because it is my belief that the greatest knowledge is realizing how little we truly know.
Each day, from the moment I awaken, before my eyes find a way to open, or my feet find the floor, I find myself in search of the answers to life—to understand and to be understood.
El Saadawi says the very same thing in the first sentence of her work—the moment that captured me. “…so that you may perhaps understand me or that I may perhaps understand myself. The attempt may come to nothing, for who is able to understand himself or the other? Who is able to break the shell? Just as attempting to break it merely confirms that it is not broken, so attempting to understand only increases the feeling of not understanding. And yet I try. I realize for certain that the attempt is futile but that does not stop me trying, just as I do not give up living my life, knowing that death is inevitable.”
The more I attempt to understand or to make myself understood, the less of an understanding there seems to be. Even when an understanding seems to have been achieved between two people, don’t we then realize that there are others that don’t understand us, or that we ourselves don’t understand? And yet, we continue to try. We forage for this understanding as if it were a life-sustaining nutrient. How many times will a person, tell the same story again? The beggar, sifting through debris, moving from dumpster to dumpster, looking for a morsel to appease the hunger, is he any different than the person who moves down a line of people relating the same incident looking for someone to understand? Are they not both looking for sustenance?
El Saadawi describes the happy medium that society has come to believe is what everyone should strive for. She describes it as the “halfway position,” loving but not loving, hating but not hating. And, as she states, this is how mental health is defined, and that to be considered healthy, a person must be dishonest with him/her self and not truly feel, but be somewhere in between.
I spent most of my life loving but not loving, hating but not hating. I denied myself to be expressive; I wanted to be viewed as healthy, sane, and yet, that is when I most felt as though I was balancing like a tightrope walker. Sanity lay on one side, and on the other, madness. One deep or rapid breath, and my balance could be lost—but which way would I fall? People are often afraid of those people who display or express intense emotion. We are terrified of the fire of one man’s wrath, and we dub the jubilant man crazy; we welcome the man in the middle—the man that neither loves nor hates—the safe man.
El Saadawi also writes of a feeling of loneliness, of being surrounded by people, and yet feeling isolated. She speaks of times with her friend and despite their close proximity, the lack of “touch,” and the push and pull of wanting to abandon the loneliness, and run away, push away, and hide from the very thing she seeks.
My life has been a constant push and pull of that which I desire, and that which I am afraid of. How many times I have been in the company of people, many people, and felt very alone. Is it because I am different and feel misunderstood, or is it because I have pushed them away? My entire marriage, I pondered how it was that I could share a living space and a bed with the man I called my husband, have one body against another, and yet feel that a touch never occurred.
“In truth, most of the time I live in my dreams for I can choose and change them, whereas it is reality which changes me without my choosing,” writes El Saadawi.
In my dreams, I can be a director, an editor. I can cut out the parts I don’t like, and replay the parts I do. I can change things to suit me—to encourage my sanity, or promote my madness. Sometimes, I feel that the division between the two is so fine it is almost nonexistent. My imagination, it is either my greatest ally or my most lethal opponent, depending on how I chose to use it. But, it is mine, and I alone have the choice.
Although El Saadawi never actually says to her friend that she loves him, she expresses passionately, intensely, that she is drawn to him, wants him, and at moments has come very close to telling him what he means to her, and yet she is afraid of losing her freedom.
So many American women lose themselves and their identity when they become involved in a relationship. They become someone’s mother, someone else’s wife or girlfriend, and they always remain another’s daughter, and frequently, somewhere while picking up these many titles, they misplace the most vital one, that of themselves. Having experienced that myself, I fought one of my most difficult battles, with everything inside of me, to regain my most precious title and my autonomy. To once again become Angela. It was that fight that has made me so guarded. No matter how important something or someone is to me, there remains a fortress around that title, protecting it as if it were the royal crown, the last remaining heir to the throne.
El Saadawi ends her letter asking, “after all this, can you still accuse me of being incapable of loving? Can you again tell me that I don’t understand…can you now understand me a little? And do I understand you a little?”
I could fill volumes with my written attempts to understand and be understood. My confessions, my questions, and all my emotions—my sanity and my madness, have found it safe to venture out from their hiding places most frequently when they could take advantage of the rendezvous between pen and paper.
There is not a line in El Saadawi’s A Modern Love Letter that does not hypnotize me.One does not have to be an Arab woman to identify with the work.One only has to desire to be understood, and to feel the conflict of wanting something so badly, and wondering if we are willing to gamble those things that we have fought so hard to obtain.After reading this for the fifth time, I can only wonder, could I have written this during some dissociative fugue?No?Oh, then El Saadawi and I must have spoken during one of my dreams, for it is all so real to me.
Kundera’s Identity is a novel which travels back and forth between the believable and the unbelievable. Kundera magnificently transitions between reality and fantasy. Often it is difficult to distinguish between Kudnera’s two worlds, if it is possible to make the distinction at all. There are many parts of Kundera’s story that seem very real, very normal; however, the bulk of the story has a surreal atmosphere about it.
From the beginning, the story reminded me of a dream. The way the story shifted from scene to scene without any warning and the way so many of the actions, attitudes and characters seemed out of place all gave the story an otherworldliness about it. I found myself thinking either the book consisted of dream scenes, or it was about people who were demented and was written by someone who suffers from severe psychological problems.
The novel beings like a passionate love story. Chantal is in Normandy waiting for Jean-Marc to arrive. She is in a restaurant when she overhears two waitresses talking about a television show, “Lost to Sight.” Chantal thinks about how difficult it would be for her to lose Jean-Marc, to never know what happened to him, and to have to live the rest of her days in misery, because suicide would be a refusal to wait for him. You get the impression she has as deep and intense love for Jean-Marc. For Chantel a life without Jean-Marc would be a life of misery.
Chantel has to spend one night alone in Normandy before Jean-Marc arrives. During the night, her sleep is broken, and she has a dream involving people from her past. She finds the dream disturbing. I think this is where the story shifts to fantasy. Although many parts of the first half of the story seem believable, Kundera never says Chantal went back to sleep after the dream. I think Chantal continued to sleep, and it was during her sleep that she dreamed the rest of the story. Perhaps it was sleeping without Jean-Marc that caused her sleep to be so restless.
The novel hints of having a surrealistic undertone early in the story. The story regularly shifts from scene to scene and has situations and conversations that seem out of place, much like the dreams so many of us have. From the beginning I found myself asking how certain situations could be true and thought it reminded me of a dream.
When Jean-Marc finds Chantal in Normandy, she is unable to embrace him. When he tries to comfort Chantal, after she says, “men don’t turn to look at me anymore,” she pushes him away. With the exceptions of how she came to live with Jean-Marc and when they met at the ski lodge, Chantal never mentions Jean-Marc with much affection. I found this to be rather peculiar since in the first chapter she thinks about how miserable life would be without him. If her love for him is so strong, then why can’t she embrace the man she loves or allow him to embrace her? This suggests the scene is Chantal’s fantasy.
Then there was the emphasis on Jean-Marc’s mistaking Chantal’s identity and his inability to recognize her form other women. In the beginning, when he first arrives in Normandy, he mistakes Chantal for a woman on the beach whom he describes as old and ugly. He questions Chantal’s identity again as the scene with the letters is unfolding. He beings to think she is a simulacrum. When Chantal’s sister-in-law is talking with Jean-Marc, he again thinks that the woman he loves is a simulacrum. His questioning Chantal’s identity is even evident on the train when upon seeing Chantal, he is unable to recognize her hand or her laughter and her happiness even though he knows it is indeed Chantal. I don’t think Jean-Marc caused the identity issues. I think Chantal is a very independent and strong person, but her love for Jean-Marc causes her to feel emotional vulnerable, and it manifests itself in her dreams.
Chantal believes the author of the letters to be the first man in the bistro, and later she believes the author to be the old man under the tree. When she begins to figure out that it is Jean-Marc who wrote the letters, instead of being touched, she is angry and paranoid that he is spying on her. This paranoia of being spied on leads her to a graphologist’s office. In the graphologist’s office, Chantal recognizes one of the men as the man from the café in Normandy, and again he makes her feel she is in danger. Most women would be touched if their husband or boyfriend sent them letters calling them beautiful. They would think it was very sweet. They would not be convinced he was spying on her. As for the man in the graphologist’s office being the same man from Normandy, sure, it could happen, but I find it highly doubtful. Besides, if the scene were real, why did it take Chantal so long to recognize him when he had cause do much panic in her in Normandy? Once again, Kundera was subtly telling his readers that it was all a dream.
It is odd that when her sister-in-law arrives with her children, of all the things to play with and to get into, the children find the letters under Chantal’s brassieres, thus causing Chantal to ask her sister-in-law to leave. Shortly afterward, Chantal also leaves the apartment. For a woman who loves a man so intensely that she could not bear the thought of losing him, Chantal finds it too easy to walk out on Jean-Marc.
The point when I could no longer believe what the author was writing in was at the train station and the succeeding scenes. Chantal leaves Jean-Marc and has no idea where she will go. She tells him that she has to go to London for work; however, once she leaves the apartment, she doesn’t know where she will end up. She decides to go to London for the evening, and she just happens to run into her colleague in London. Then, when Jean-Marc decided to go after her, he happens to go to the exact place that Chantal is at. In reality, what is the likelihood of that happening? From there the story only gets more bizarre and travels into the obscure at an even quicker pace. Chantal sexualizes the train ride, from the way she sees the train descending into the tunnel to the way she sees the older refined lady as the victim of an orgy. Her mind is constantly thinking sexual thoughts. When she is at the house of the orgy, Jean-Marc follows her there (red was a recurring color through out the story), he quickly gives up when he cannot gain entrance into the house. When Chantal is in the salon with the septuagenarian, the septuagenarian is calling Chantal the name Anne, again bringing up the issue of identity. This is the point in the story where there are the most dramatic scene shifts. It is at this point that it becomes obvious the story is a dream. The deeper our sleep becomes, the more obscure our dreams become. It is during sleep that we often find ourselves in situation that make no sense and that dreams are often the most disturbing.
I think in a very subtle way, Kundera may have been trying to tell his readers that he story was a dream. There are many scenes involving sleep, dreams, and consciousness. However, as readers, we have a tendency to believe what we are reading, and unless the author tells us otherwise, we rarely question it. I think Kundera tried to make us believe the story, and when we find out the story is a dream, it is more difficult for us to figure out which parts are reality and which parts are fantasy. Kundera tries to make the distinction even more difficulty by asking the reader who to whom the dream belongs.
It appears that the story shifts from reality to dream when Chantal is asleep in Normandy the first night waiting for Jean-Marc. However, her dream doesn’t become ridiculously far fetched until the scene at the train station.
For the most part, Chantal was the dreamer. In the beginning, while waiting for Jean-Marc in Normandy, she is sleeping and is awakens in the middle of the night by a dream involving people from her past. Kundera never says that Chantal stayed awake for the rest of the night. I think that Chantal fell back asleep after the first dream and that is when the rest of the story occurred. It is probably when Jean-Marc arrived, perhaps while Chantal was asleep, that he went to sleep beside her and woke her when she began to scream. It was in the salon that Chantal started to feel that sense of danger that one usually feels just before one screams during a dream. I think the dream belonged to Chantal entirely rather than to Jean-Marc. Jean-Marc did not seem as paranoid as Chantal, and the story focuses more her thoughts and emotions. Jean-Marc seems more like he is someone who is an actor cast in her theatrical production. Chantal is the one who screams in the dream, and it is Jean-Marc who comforts her and reassures her that “Chantal. Chantal. Chantal. It’s not real.” By doing so he returns her identity to her. At the very end of the story, Chantal does not want to let Jean-Marc out of her sight for fear that in the second it takes to blink, she could lose him. Jean-Marc doesn’t say much or show much emotion at the end of the book. It is Chantal who is emotional, just as someone who has had a very emotional dream. Had it been Jean-Marc’s dream with the thought of losing the woman he loves most, he likely would be more emotional upon waking from the dream.
Kundera does a wonderful job of making the reader question the reality of what is being read. For the first two-thirds of the book, almost any of the scenes could be perfectly believable on their own, but when they are added together, they become more difficult to fathom. However, I think if anyone has ever had an obscure or upsetting dream and pays close enough attention to Kundera’s clues, then he or she can see that the story is fantasy from the beginning.