"When I opened the back door of the apartment building, I hesitated. You could hear McCluskey's dog quietly whining, not loud enough to bring a beating, but like he couldn't quite muffle his awful loneliness." (West, 51).
I think that this quote is incredibly significant in presenting the themes of abuse and blame early in the novel, which are both notable influences in how the story plays out. McCluskey's dog has been neglected and beaten its entire life by his abusive owner, and believes that nothing exists outside of this world that he's presented with. Even when Cal tries to free him, the dog is paralyzed with fear and hesitation from escaping the only thing he's ever known. Similarly, Gretchen Luttermann has been persistently abused, harmed, and assaulted by her father for years, and knows only this world in which she is mistreated. Like the dog, she cannot feasibly escape this world, and only through intervention (Cal's father calling the Humane Society and Cal framing Otto Luttermann) is there any hope for living once again. For so long, Gretchen survived by "quietly whining", audible enough to hear if you listen, but not loud enough to break through the stigmas and judgements those around her trapped her in. I think another important theme that this passage presents in victim blaming, and how often people view that the abuse they endure is somehow their own fault. The dog didn't know that he deserved anything more than McCluskey's mistreatment, and only realized what he had been missing when he was released from his abuse and given the care he deserved. Gretchen suggested to Cal once that maybe her father treated her this way because she wasn't holy, or someone deserved the abuse because she was a sinner. These thoughts are both vastly incorrect and cognitively damaging, and the lasting affect of her father's abuse on Gretchen is physical, emotional, and deeply psychological. The dog may be taken out the yard, but it will always remember the abuse it endured.
Works Cited
West, Stanley Gordon. Until They Bring the Streetcars Back. Bozeman, MT: Lexington-Marshall Publishing, 1997.
I think that this quote is incredibly significant in presenting the themes of abuse and blame early in the novel, which are both notable influences in how the story plays out. McCluskey's dog has been neglected and beaten its entire life by his abusive owner, and believes that nothing exists outside of this world that he's presented with. Even when Cal tries to free him, the dog is paralyzed with fear and hesitation from escaping the only thing he's ever known. Similarly, Gretchen Luttermann has been persistently abused, harmed, and assaulted by her father for years, and knows only this world in which she is mistreated. Like the dog, she cannot feasibly escape this world, and only through intervention (Cal's father calling the Humane Society and Cal framing Otto Luttermann) is there any hope for living once again. For so long, Gretchen survived by "quietly whining", audible enough to hear if you listen, but not loud enough to break through the stigmas and judgements those around her trapped her in. I think another important theme that this passage presents in victim blaming, and how often people view that the abuse they endure is somehow their own fault. The dog didn't know that he deserved anything more than McCluskey's mistreatment, and only realized what he had been missing when he was released from his abuse and given the care he deserved. Gretchen suggested to Cal once that maybe her father treated her this way because she wasn't holy, or someone deserved the abuse because she was a sinner. These thoughts are both vastly incorrect and cognitively damaging, and the lasting affect of her father's abuse on Gretchen is physical, emotional, and deeply psychological. The dog may be taken out the yard, but it will always remember the abuse it endured.
Works Cited
West, Stanley Gordon. Until They Bring the Streetcars Back. Bozeman, MT: Lexington-Marshall Publishing, 1997.