Essay 1

This piece was my greatest challenge because it truly moved me. The story had to do with real life experiences that happens in today's society. Having to watch someone get rapped is horrible but the effects of knowing you could have done something to stop it is more agonizing beyond anything you could ever understand.

“The Curse”
Andre Dubus
English 102
Laura James
September 14, 2006 “The Curse” by Andre Dubus is about feelings of guilt. The story consist of a bartender in his late forties who is a witness of a horrible crime. It begins with the description of the night in question and ends with the bartender wanting to take the victims pain who he calls the curse. Mitchell Hays is the name of the main character in the story. He is a forty-nine year old bartender who married late in life and has two step children. Mitchell worked at a local bar where everybody knew everybody. On this dreadful night it was a slow because of the warm weather and most of the locals were at the beach.

It was a slow night so he decided to start closing up the bar when five guys on loud motorcycles came in. He noticed they were not bikers. He also noticed how strange they acted; like they were on drugs. He gave them what they ordered. Not to long after that a young lady came in to get change. Mitchell gave her the change but before she could get out of the bar the five guys started messing with her. Mitchell went to the phone to call the police but one of the guys pushed him away and blocked him from getting to the phone. Mitchell had to watch them rape her; one by one. After it was all over he called the police and handed the girl her clothes.

When the police finally got there they told him they caught the five guys who raped the girl. The ambulance took the girl to the hospital. All Mitchell could think about was the cheering, the crying, the groaning, the rape. He kept telling himself I could have stopped it. He closed up the bar and went home. When he came into the house it woke his wife up. She asked him if he was okay and he told her no. He told her nothing of that nights events. They both went to bed. Mitchell could not sleep The next morning he heard his wife and step kids in the kitchen. He got up and told them what happened. All he could think about was he should have stopped them. Later on he went to work. Everything went back to normal. The regulars were back. While serving drinks he kept looking at the area where it happened. All he could think about was he should have done something.

The theme of this story is about guilt. Mitchell wanted to help the girl but when he got ruffed up he didn’t try to do anything until it was over. At the end of the story he kept remembering what had happened. “From the floor behind him, far across the room, he felt her pain, and terror, and grief, then her curse upon him. The curse moved into his back and spread down and up his spine, into his stomach and legs and arms and shoulders until he quivered with it. He wished he were alone so he could kneel and receive it.” (Dubus 1)

It seems to me that the curse Mitchell describes is his way of dealing with the trauma of the crime and the guilt of not being able to help her the way he wanted to. I feel this is ironic because you are comparing what Mitchell calls a curse to something that some people feel as a normal part of healing. Everybody deals with traumatic events differently. All of his friends and family seemed really supportive. It really amazes me how people deal with trauma. Some people block it out, others get professional help, yet others just deal with it. Truth be known that rape happens a lot in today’s society. A lot of the time it not reported or there is no witness. Sometimes we need to realize bad things happen to good people and there is nothing you can do about it.

Mr. Dubus describes the characters in the story very well. Not one of them you questioned. He described everything just like if you were there. I thought this story was very creative and moving. The only thing I didn’t like about the story was it kept jumping from past to present. In the beginning I was a little confused because I thought the five guys were raping someone else.

If I could meet the author today I would like to know why he decided to write a story like this. Did something happen in his past or did he witness something? The main character Mitchell seemed like he was someone who was always looking after others( his customers, his family). Did Mr. Dubus know someone like this or did he take something from the headlines from 1988?