Criminal Justice System by Alice Sebold Essay
The book Lucky by Alice Sebold unfolds the rape ordeal that the author went through at the age of 18 years as well as the aftermath of the heinous act on her personal life. Alice recounts how she suffered after the attack even though she relentlessly tried to ignore the ordeal from haunting her (Sebold 14). She explains how it affected her individual and family life as well. She concentrates mainly on the physical, psychological, and financial impacts that she went through.
Meanwhile, the book attempts to shed light on societys attitude towards victims of rape. It is also apparent that Alice was seriously assaulted when she was being interrogated by police officers. However, she later spotted her assailant who was sentenced to having been found guilty of the offense.
It is imperative to note that rape causes intense physical pain to a victim (Sebold 13). She sustained myriad physical injuries such as skin bruising as a result of being rolled down several times. Besides, her lips were also cut off (Sebold 13). Through the horrible encounter, Alice sustained serious to profuse bleeding. All these amounted to physical pain.
Psychologically, Alice was in mind that she couldnt recall everything that happened when she was attacked. By the end of the rape ordeal, she experienced extreme emotional disturbance (Sebold 19). She felt embarrassed and developed a lot of emotional stress and fear and agony. She felt embarrassed telling her ordeal to her parents, friends, and policemen. She feared that all her classmates would discover the ordeal (Sebold 27). Alice found it hard to cope with normal school life since the ordeal persistently haunted her. She felt guilty for a long though she triumphantly got over it after intense counseling.
Besides psychological and physical impacts, victims are likely to undergo financial losses especially due to medical expenses as was the case with Alice who had to spend quite a significant amount of money in accessing health (Sebold 25). The process of healing after the medication was indeed hectic for Alice.
Sincerely speaking, it is definite that the author went through psychological, financial, and physical challenges after the ordeal. The experience was quite devastating as already mentioned. However, both psychological and physical effects were more intense than the physical pain she went through (Sebold 30).
Some of her friends were very helpful in trying to get her out of bad memories. For instance, her close friend Mary gave her the and comfort that she needed while in hospital (Sebold 24). Others like Diane were deeply moved by the ordeal that she went through. Tree, who was her colleague in school, helped her at the shower stall (Sebold 26). However, some of her classmates were puzzled and responded coldly to the whole experience. In other words, they avoided providing any emotional or financial help.
