281 - Final Project - a.a.

Memoir: Heart Berries

"My mind is overwhelmed with breakfast alone. I don't eat for days so you can run your hands over my ribcage. You told me that you always want to eat ribs afterward. I don't eat for days because I can't afford it. The meal I order after being fucked, by you, or anyone, is something earned. Men objectify me, to such a degree that they forget I eat. You feed your dog more kindly than you feed me. That's men" (25).
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"I go to group therapy. It is quite intense, because holy shit there are a lot of women in the group who can articulate why they are here.

'It's been forty years of silence for me,' said Laurie. 'My father raped me from age six to ten.' 

The group counselor said that one must forgive for one's self and not for the perpetrator. This made little-to-no sense in my mind. We're all on meds here, most of us half zombie and half antsy: a weird mix. In white culture, forgiveness is synonymous with letting go. In my culture, I believe we carry pain until we reconcile with it through ceremony. Pain is not framed like a problem with a solution" (28).
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"I fit the criteria of an adult child of an alcoholic and the victim of sexual abuse. I reiterate to the therapists several stories about my eldest brother's abuse and my sister's. I often have felt, in proximity to their violations, that I mimic their chaos" (42-43).
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Larry - p. 102
Father - p. 108-110, 114

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