Reviewer’s Name: Marina Malak
Title of Piece: Whatever Happened to ——?                Author’s Name: Anonymous
Point of View:
The author used her own point of view according to her lived experience to answer the question in the title; “Whatever Happened to—?”. In the piece, she talks about her physical and emotional abuse by her ex-husband and all the other patriarchal unfair consequences that she had to deal with; from the male driver belittling that writer that got married and stopped writing to the female judge that gave the husband 100% of the assets when they divorced. All what she went through answers the question from her point of view; a point of view that neither the driver nor the society might take in consideration what she and many others like her had and have been going through. I enjoyed reading her piece because her point of view is indeed valid and eye opening in terms of seeing the bigger picture behind being a full time wife, mother, writer, and bread earner in addition to having to deal with the society’s rooted gender roles and sexism that made the ex-husband “insecure” and violent due to her being more successful.
Setting & Context:
The setting of the story was not clear in terms of time. It is apparently taking place in two different locations; the first is the car where the author is having a conversation with the driver and thinking about her experience as a female writer. The second is where the actual story happens which tend to be mostly at the author’s house or place of living where the abusive event takes place. I wonder if it was an ongoing emotional and physical abuse or was it just this event?. The context of the story is clear as she was talking with the driver and the conversation took her back to her abusive relationship and obstacles that faced her.
Voice & Style
I like the author’s selected phrases such as “Let it Go”, and “It is Happy Hour”; I think those simple phrases used with the context she gave to her story shows how lightly other people and sometimes even ourselves can take what someone is actually going through. Those same phrases also show how something such as physical abuse and patriarchy can be treated as normal and many women are expected to “let it go” to be happy.
Dialogue
The author was alternating between talking to the audience and having an inner monologue remembering all what happened to her. The author also had a small talk with the driver at first which initiated the process of having all the thoughts she discussed. It seemed to me that the dialogue was mostly a self talk and rehearsal of the events rather than talking to the audience; only the last few paragraphs were clearly directed to the audience.
Hi Marina, I belive that Anonymous didnt disclose their setting was due to privacy reasons, maybe she felt that if she did their was a possibility for her identity to be found. She said she sold like 20,000 copys of her book when talking about she success compared to her ex-husbands. The only time she disclosed location was in the beginning. I think the rest was up to the readers imagination.
Hi Marina, I belive that Anonymous didnt disclose their setting was due to privacy reasons, maybe she felt that if she did their was a possibility for her identity to be found. She said she sold like 20,000 copys of her book when talking about she success compared to her ex-husbands. The only time she disclosed location was in the beginning. I think the rest was up to the readers imagination.