Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Post B

"On the Rocks" is a chapter all about sexuality. Alice shows up at the lake and J.D. is naked laying on a rock. They eat lunch together, and J.D. persistently tries to coax Alice to take her clothes off. Alice refuses at first, infuriated by this question.

" 'Skinny-dipping prevents tan lines,' said J.D. 'I like a dark, smooth, even tan, hon.' He wiggled his rear end at her. 'How about you?' 'No,' Alice said. It was a cosmic no- loud and large. No, Alice thought, to your dark, smooth, even tan. To hell with you. To hell with everything" (228).

She makes it clear that she does not want to take her clothes off. But as time goes on, and as she "gazes at the image of perfection that is J.D's body", her mind changes.

"At it, at you, you're it. Alice felt her face get hot, ashamed that she knew what he wanted, everything he wanted, what he meant. She was filled with a sharper certainty that she was a freak of nature, a hideous monstrosity. Her knowledge seemed perverse. She did as he asked. She was horrible now, and so was he" (235).

It's really strange. She knows what she's doing is not right, but she can't seem to say no to him. She never seems able to say no.

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