cass ford & rose mellie rose

"This is the first time I have been dressed all in red." - page 43

In this quote, the operative words are "been dressed"-- making it seem more like Miss Martha had dressed her than she had dressed herself, and in a metaphorical sense, she had. Miss Martha dressing Mellie in red and taking her to the tea dances was more of Miss Martha offering Mellie sexually than Mellie was offering herself. When Miss Martha said Mellie was the right age for what she was doing, I was like, "What the fuck is wrong with this woman? Also, how does she run every freaking operation on the island?"

Mellie's weird. She doesn't act or react like a 12 year old should, and I don't think the language in the book is much like a 12 year old. Most of her emotions are expressed through metaphor and imagery-- for example, first the red dress, then the white-- moving from passion to innocence as she becomes disenchanted with the teas. Another example would be the blood stain left on the trucker's seat after he rapes her.

I don't think Mellie is a whore. When you grow up in a certain environment, it takes time to realize and separate what is normal or maladaptive about that environment later. She is doing what she has been taught to do. Whenever she has a sexual encounter, she says she does everything the man wants her to do, which she obviously must think is right or normal (after all, Miss Martha does it). I don't think she feels true pleasure or passion with these encounters. It's not like she's going around with a burning passion in her loins or something. Things just happen to her. I'm sure the psychological trauma will catch up with her in a few years.

I also don't really like the language the book uses. I find it so plain and redundant that it seems one-dimensional. I doubt it's the translation from French to English, because it's not like French lacks the language to describe concepts contained in the English language. French practically lent itself to the entire lexicon of abstract English words and expressions. The simplistic nature of the language might just be characteristic of someone incredibly traumatized, but maybe the author is just bad at pretending to be 12.