Response to Rose Mellie Rose

"He thinks he knows me because we were together on the bunk in his truck.  I have nothing else to say to him.  Our walk along the beach ended there.  The walk was ruined.  My whole afternoon is ruined." p. 65

I like this quote because it can be true of relationships; the intimacy of sex can indeed get you closer to someone, as it did for the truck driver.  However, it does not mean that you know them, who they truly are.  That also does not mean that you have the right to control them. 

After having sex with the truck driver for a second time, Mellie is angered that he is upset that she will not come with him to the continent, but wants to stay in Oat where her life is.  He says that he thought he knew her.  She seemed as if she would travel far, but it seemed as if she were stuck in Oat all her life now, dwindling it away for nothing too important.

This angers Mellie, as it would anger me.  Lover or not, the truck driver has no right to treat Mellie as such, considering that in reality, they really are not that close.  He does not know here from Eve, really; the only reason that he is asking her to come with him is out of loneliness or attachment.  And even when he's mad at her for refusing, he still gives her his address in hopes that she will change her mind and come to live with him on the continent.