Mona Simpson has written a very interesting short story entitled, ALawns.@ The story deals with the effects of an abnormal relationship of father/daughter incest, and the narrator tells the story in a totally reliable and compelling way. The protagonist, Jenny is the victim of prolonged sexual abuse. Jenny has feelings of being powerless to control certain aspects of her life. She has feelings of worthlessness, betrayal, and some issues of not being able to trust. She exhibits low self-esteem, and as a result, she sometimes acts without clear reasoning. Jenny herself is untruthful and has an ongoing urge to steal little treats like cookies sent in the mail to her dormitory peers from their loving families. However, to her friends she is a regular student living a normal life with a 4.0 grade point average. In reality Jenny is simply acting out because of the rape by her father and is unconsciously modeling his behavior in different aspects of her life.
The theft of Jenny s= childhood began at a very early age first by molestation and later at the age of twelve, her father raped her. As the narrator of "Lawns" she vocalizes about how powerless she felt when her father had sex with her. So by taking from her peers= Jenny is really trying to get a feeling of her own power back. She is deliberately thieving from them as her father did from her, but her understanding why may be hard for her to grasp. This behavior is really ironic because she is replacing her stolen innocence, by taking from her peers. She feels so very different from the other people around her; as if something is wrong with her deep down inside and she is trying to find some normalcy in her life. .
However, we notice Jenny does not steal from anyone, only people she knows. Is this method of choosing her victims by accident? Not really, her fathers= behavior has called forth unexpected model behavior in her. As the rapist, he has chosen to rape his daughter instead of a stranger.
