Lucky pgs. 159-232

Summary: In these chapters (11-13), Alice is experiencing a lot of things within her life. So far, Alice had been sexually abused by an African American stranger, around her college dorm, during her freshman year. Along with this, Alice finds out that her mother is pregnant around the same time as her court trial and her older sister can't make it to her court trial because of her college business that she has to attend to. To top everything off, Alice's new roommate at college was raped as well. To leave the place of her rape, just to come back again and find out that her roommate was raped, is ironic. I think that throughout this novel, Alice sebold played with a lot of ironic ideas. At the end of the novel, Alice seemed to be trying to get her life back together; re-inventing herself.
Quote: "Rape would not follow me."(Sebold 232).
Reaction: I like how the Alice played with irony thoughout the story. She used irony on the title, 'Lucky,' which Alice never seemed to be. She also played with irony when Alice returns to her college and her roommate was sexually abused as well. The connection that the quote has with the story is that at the end of the story, Alice seemed to be completely re-inventing herself. Alice did not let the rape control to much of her life, although it often terrified her to think about. She reassured herself that her past would remain her past for as long as it could.

Lucky Pgs. 91-159

Summary: In these chapters (7-11), Alice Sebold is going back to her rape story. Alice takes a minature break from her rape story to let readers digest what they have just read. In these chapters, Alice was continuing exactly for where she left off, which was going through the process of trying to figure out who her rapist was. What Alice goes through these chapters saying is that she doesn't want to be another statistic, another rape victim. The idea of being another one of the rape victims of the world is scary to her. Also, in these chapters, Alice has to identify who her rapist was. For any rape victim, i can understand this being a challenging process, but Alice took it well. I read that she panics about the smallest things that occur in her life, but she was suprisingly calm anout identifying her rapist (132-145). I think by identifying her rapist, Alice had that revelation moment, that this rape situation was always going to be apart of her life.
Quote:"A world of violent crime"(Sebold 145)
Reaction: This quote helps emphasis the overall story of this novel. Alice had to realize that the world is not just an amazing place to live, there are flaws that the world has to offer. The fact that Alice is facing the man that had sexually abused her, is an interesting twist on the story. Along with that twist, i like how there is also a dual narrative voice in the story. Alice uses the term "I later learned...," which expresses to me that she analyzed her situation years after it happened, but before she wrote the book. By Alice thinking about what had happened and analyzing everything in her own mind, the story becomes more realistic.

Lucky Pgs. 62-91

Summary: In Chapters 5 through 7, Alice is still giving her readers that sense of taking a 'break' from her sexual abuse. In the chapters after Alice's rape, she is not bringing it up as much in the story. Because this book is about Alice's rape, i expect to read more about it, but then, i realize that this book is also about her life AFTER the rape as well. The readers see that Alice Sebold was a lot more child-like before her rape and after her rape, Alice seemed to transform more into an adult. She is seeing that her innocence is taken in more ways than just one, (Sebold 62-91).
Quote: "The world was not divided for me then as it is now...There are two styles available: the safe and the not safe"(Sebold 90).
Reaction: I feel that with the above quote, Alice Sebold is letting the readers know that from here on out, nothing is safe to her. In this point in the story, Alice has returned back home to her family; to the place she thought was her home. This is ironic because Alice is returning to the place where she grew up as a child, and I expect her to recieve some form of special treatment after her rape. The people of the town look at her differently, instead of comforting her like I would expect them to. To conclude, Alice has a catchy way of getting and keeping hold of the reader's attention. By introducing the rape at the beginning, Alice was able to get it out of the way, and elaborate on her life at the time.

Lucky Pgs. 35-61

Summary: In the chapters 3 through 5, Alice is basically going back to the time before the rape. She describes her childhood, growing up in Frazer , Pennsylvania. This chapter where she explicitly describes her childhood relates to the overall story because it's defining the simpler times for Alice Sebold. In just these two chapters, Alice describes playing with her dolls and former friend to laying across her bed the night of her rape. Every detail that Alice put into the story, whether it was changing her characters names or not, added more of a personal level to Alice Sebold's memoir.

Quote: " In the yard some distance from the house was a half-charred Raggedy Andy doll." (Sebold 35)

Reaction: After reading these two chapters from Alice Sebold's Lucky, my opinion of her as an overall author has not changed. The touch of detail that Alice added by putting the things she did before she was raped made me want to read more. When i first began reading the book, I felt that Alice rushed into explaining her rape too quickly. The forward was about her rape and then the first and second chapters were about it too. I didn't know whether the story was going anywhere, until Alice introduced the readers to her life before it became complicated. I think that by added her childhood to the story and giving her sexual abuse story a rest for awhile, the story became more enjoyable.