After watching the whole film, I didn't see too much "Carnival"'s anger towards the perpetrator and the helplessness towards the family and the environment. "Letterhead Story" completely restores the incident from the personal perspective of 13-year-old Jennifer who was sexually assaulted. After nearly 40 years of memory, story and reality, beauty and cruelty, gradually became clear.
After watching this movie, I kept thinking about these questions.
Why Jennifer?
Why did Jennifer stay with Bill for such a long time?
Why does Jennifer have no memory of what happened to her when she was 13?
Is Jennifer a victim?
Regarding the first two points, the film directly gave the answer through the dialogue between Jennifer and her mother. Points 3 and 4 indirectly give some clues through a virtual conversation now with 13-year-old Jennifer near the end.
Why does Jennifer have no memory of what happened to her when she was 13?
A 13-year-old girl, and then being sexually assaulted, is completely unreasonable for a sane Jennifer.
In fact, after her physical reaction of vomiting repeatedly told her psychological resistance, she made the decision not to meet them anymore. Then she wrote that essay and shared it in her composition class, chalking it up to a story she made up. She may have seen the experience as a story to be sealed away from its life.
Therefore, she subconsciously erased it from her memory, or "frozen" it into an unreachable corner of her memory.
Is Jennifer a victim?
I think this is the most special point of view and the most important message of the show. Different from the usual victim perspective, 13-year-old Jennifer thinks she is Hero who got out of the experience, she offered to end it, Bill was crying on the phone, and he will miss her all the time, even giving her She sends cards. She has assigned herself the role of winner.
And in her adult life, on the surface, this experience did not leave Jennifer's life any harm. She's a teacher, a journalist, doing what she does best - telling stories and sharing them with a lot of people. Her life looks good too, about loving her life partner, satisfying sex.
In fact, she is not married and has no children, although she comes from a family with many children, does not like children, and even enjoys sexual pleasure many years later. These are actually injuries from that horrific experience.
This is not a stereotyped story of a girl who was sexually assaulted. She is immature, but she is making her own decisions. This is of course directly related to American education and culture, but she still has a maturity that transcends her body. Self-redemption in the face of disaster. During this heartbreaking experience, she didn't cry the entire time, mostly smiling, acquiescing, and even smiling while sharing the article.
Forty years later, nearly unraveling the scar and confronting the source of the hurt, Jennifer speaks out about her disgust at the time, tears of humiliation welled up in her eyes, and this time she's the real winner.
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