Know My Name - Literary Analysis Essay

Introduction

This book by Chanel Miller is remarkable and one of a kind in the way the author turns her trauma into art. After her battle with sexual assault, she wrote an extraordinary memoir that converts her past experiences into literature. Therefore, the book is given an imperative title, Know My Name, which has been beneficial in mobilizing women in the fight societal attitude towards gender roles and expectations in context to taboo beliefs and cultural habit of silencing women in both sexual and reproductive issues. In the first chapter, she claims that "No wallet, no ID. Policemen were summoned, a Stanford dean was awakened to come to see if he could recognize me, witness asked around, but nobody knew who I belonged to, where I'd come from, who I was"(Chanel,5). In these words, the author explains her traumatizing state. However, what makes her words in the statement more piercing is her appearance at the place was taken as a surprise by many.

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In the first part, Miller is in a crossroads trying to identify what later unfolded after she attended a fraternity party with the company of her sister, who had visited for a weekend alongside few close friends. At that time, Miller resided at Stanford; therefore, she had tagged along for fun. She hangs around with these individuals without knowing what lies ahead of her, dire circumstances forcing her to press charges on evil Turner. The incident inevitably placers her in the position to face the justice system that demeans her while holding to the belief that all this is done for her benefit. The unspeakable act that happened to Miller is widespread among the community. Due to cultural feelings towards women, many men in society only view females as sex objects. According to the views of some men, the woman figure should mainly serve sexual purposes. Sadly, this belief has rapidly spread, finding its way into a variety of places like in schools, courts, churches, and even workplaces.

In Miller's book, the party glued her into the complex structure of the jurisdiction system, which places her on a crossroads. She is misled and misbelieved, a typical response to reports on sexual assaults. In the quest for justice, Miller tries to be compliant and patient even though she becomes increasingly confused and outraged as the hearing took turns. She tries to maintain a good profile by manage remaining a suitable victim, before coming to the realization that to deal with the current system, one needs to act like it. This event leaves Miller very frustrated. Therefore, she engages herself busy going, by going into different burger places with her sister Tiffany, she claims that "was where we gravitated which one of use was upset or celebrating or heartbroken" (Chanel,180). The experience emotionally changed the author's life, one of the few examples most women go through after being sexually abused. To cope with her pain, she leaves the job and attends training on print-making. Besides this, she grows emotionally bitter to men as she is seen lashing on me even to sincere men in public. The book forces the mind of the readers to keenly look and listen to the things women go through after sexual assault. In reality, we are not usually not used to experiencing the nightmare the women undergo through after a rape or abuse. Hence, Miller broke the boundary by explaining and explaining the trauma she was exposed to. Due to the setting of society, a lot of people tend to shy away from the topic. Even in regards to the American court system, especially sexual matters, more weight lies towards silence. The book anonymizes the victims of the act, encouraging them that speaking out not only helps in the fight for justice but also acts as an effective means of therapy. In a more elegant way, the book reveals the hidden stories of these victims, ostensibly directed to them.

Even in this current world where both men and women explore both their inner masculine and feminism essence, the shame of speaking about sexual violence remains incorporated in the cultural beliefs and expectations of the society, since the victims prefer talking about their encounters in hushed tones. They prefer to be quiet because society usually dehumanizes these victims, blaming the actions of the victims. In courts, the matter is typically framed to look like the actions of the victims are in trial, but not of the offender. In her book, Miller writes that "The assault is never personal, the blaming is" (Chanel, 188). The uniqueness of the novel lies, however, on the dreadful story of Miller. Before Miller and her sister attend the hearing, they select outfits that would be appropriate to put on. Miller inquires about dressing choices from her YWCA advocate, who responds by recommends an outfit that is more comfortable and respectful. This is evident that the sexual aggressiveness of men is usually blamed on the dressing of the females. In my view, men blame females for having their beautiful attributes, but in reality, this is how females are, men should not take this as an excuse to escape penalties of their sexual acts. Every time men are cornered on sexual matters, and they cling on dressing and theory of men superiority for refugees.

The cases of sexual aggression have been increasing over recent years producing damaging results in our culture. The direction of blame influences how first the recovery process occurs. Women are, in this case, socialized to take themselves objects under evaluation based on their appearances. Every time objectification is used in media ideas specifically to target the male, and they are maybe spread of misleading messages that men have the authority to look and touch since objects lack their own rights. In simple terms, many men view rape as the act of making good on sexual objectification threats. Also, Women, women tend to objectify other women in life; they also so especially if the type of crime involves treating the other person as a body. Therefore from this point of view, both men and women engage in the habit of objectifying the sexually harassed women by blame their moral behaviors and mind.

Conclusion

In conclusion, in any instance of sexual harassment, the rate of victim-blaming on rape is usually high since the victim is a woman, and to our community, a woman is labeled as being immoral. Miller was advised to wear decent clothing since the blame is usually directed towards the victim in situations where the behavior of the victim is seen as a possible cause for sexual temptation. Therefore from the novel, not all victims find it easy to move on since the process may take some time.

Work Cited

Miller, Chanel. Know my name: a memoir. Penguin, 2019.