Violent Rooms

For many of the big moments in one's life we remember more about where we were rather than what actually happened. This can be seen in the writing of "Violent Rooms" by Dawn Martin. My interpretation of this writing is a dark one that depicts a women being, or about to be raped. The reason I linked "location" and "moments in one's life" together is because when an event as traumatic as being raped occurs then the victim will forever associate that moment with that location. This is extremely popular among many people, not just rape victims, and the events do not need to be bad in any way but most are positive events. Much like when you were a kid and you learned how to ride a bike. Most people will remember where they learned and associate that location with that event.

My interpretation of this piece was of a woman being raped for a few reasons. "As in yard rake pressed to roof of mouth. A fragrant rod. Suh-ssuh-ssuck. Insistence." To me this seemed to be someone forcibly putting their hand in the girl's mouth and holding it open with the fingers being compared to the fingers of a rake. The attacker seems to be the one telling the victim to perform oral sex and is very persistent. "The contours of the girl blue. She is both becoming and fact." This shows that in those life changing moments we don't always quite remember every detail or we may of been so caught up in the moment that our imagery is blurred. She is "becoming and fact" because she is now a statistic of rape victims and this moment can not be erased and is now true forever.

"Having not ever been whole. Or simple. Or young. Just split and open." This may refer to the victim talking about how after the event occurred she never felt the same or life was just never easy anymore. This leads me to infer that she was young when this took place because she says she has never been young, so she may feel she never had a real childhood due to this event taking place. Also she may feel used because she is nothing more than just a "sex object" and is not important. Everything tying back to the title that she will always remember the room she was in where this horrible event took place.