No lo imaginaba en el ejército, ni en ningún bando; no encajaba con él, y , hasta donde sabía no tenía ideología alguna. Debía de ser algo anodino, al margen, como ella; tal vez se había hecho intérprete. The conversation is tragically ironic, moving from woman to woman, Darlene calling the entire subject "disgusting," Greta describing a Tarzan-like scenario, Chrissy describing hers in a bubble bath, when Estelle, ever the voice of reason, reminds them that what they’re describing are sexual fantasies: "Listen . . . those aren’t rape fantasies. I mean, you aren’t getting raped, it’s just some guy you haven’t met formally who happens to be more attractive than Derek Cummins . . . and you have a good time. Rape is when they’ve got a knife or something and you don’t want to" (104). A monologue is a speech given by one person in a performance or work of literature. The entire narrative of "Rape Fantasies" is a monologue by Estelle. By creating a story in which the point of view is first-person and everything, including the descriptions, actions, and words of the other characters are filtered through the narrator's perception, Atwood creates a highly subjective story in which much of the interpretation is up to the reader. This is one reason why criticism on first-person stories, including "Rape Fantasies," often focuses on whether or not the narrator is reliable. If the narrator is reliable, then his or her words can probably be taken at face value, and little other interpretation of events need take place. If, however, the narrator is not reliable, readers must exercise caution in interpreting the events of the story. Atwood provides few clues to suggest how reliable a narrator Estelle is. While she seems to give biting and accurate character descriptions—describing Chrissy as "varnished," and even commenting negatively on herself as someone who cries at movies, "even the ones that aren't all that sad"—there is no alternate point of view in the story to corroborate the things she says.

Betty Almost a coming of age tale, with the adolescent narrator who doesn’t quite understand the world of the grown-ups that she observes. Betty is part of “Betty and Fred” the couple who live next door at the cottages where her family is spending the summer, and the girl and her sister are a bit taken with Fred, but it is Betty who makes them welcomed and treats them well. Fred seems so ideal to their young minds. About half way through the tale, our narrator observes, “I began to think that I might not want to be married to Fred after all. He unrolled from Betty’s mouth like a long ribbon of soggy newspaper printed from end to end with nothing but the weather.” That simile said all. Es la calma ininterrumpida, tanto interna como externa, lo que la irrita. A todo el mundo le ocurren cosas, ¿por qué no a mí?, piensa. Por otra parte, está convencida de que sí ocurren cosas a su alrededor, pero que se las ocultan.Rape Fantasies" is a short story by the Canadian author Margaret Atwood. The story, notable for its dark humor, was originally published in The Fiddlehead in 1975, [1] and subsequently republished in Atwood's Dancing Girls & Other Stories in 1977, after being left out of the first edition. [2] The story gained greater attention and study when it was later anthologized in the 1985 edition of Norton Anthology of Literature by Women. Nunca he entendido por qué la gente considera la juventud una época de libertad y alegría. Probablemente se debe a que ha olvidado la propia. I mean, I know it happens but I just don’t understand it, that’s the part I really don’t understand (36-37). These two sentences capture the irony of a woman giving her interpretation of the rapist when she readily admits that she does not understand the feelings of someone who would actually do it. It is the irony of a situation that could never be pleasant, yet the potential victims of the violent act of rape happily daydream and converse about participation. But this allows us to accept Estelle as a genuine person with both clear and faulty thinking, and both good and bad personality traits. Her disregard for dreadful concepts and her ability to make light of serious situations are the very character qualities that make believable her carelessness in the end. Atwood tiene la gracia de darle un tono y ritmo distinto a cada uno de sus cuentos y sus historias nunca terminan como imaginas (pienso en Historia de un viaje y Cuando sucede). Mi cuento favorito es Joyería capilar y estuve a punto de darle 4 estrellas solo por él, pero con muchos otros no pude conectar nada como me paso con Dar a luz, por ejemplo.

The premise that “all women have rape fantasies” is a hasty generalization that the magazines use to fuel the female readers’ fancies about rape. For example, Darlene asserts, “I certainly don’t (have rape fantasies).” Darlene’s assertions refute the argument presented in the magazine concerning the generality of rape fantasies. Even though the Magazines put forward statistical proof to validate that the fantasies involve recognizable people such as bosses, all the rape fantasies presented by the narrator and her associates involve unacquainted men. If the characters in “Rape Fantasies” were a sample used to assess the hypothesis relating to the familiarity of rapists in rape fantasies, then the hypothesis would be false. The idea that the perfect woman, or the Virgin Mary, gave birth to a child while remaining a virgin presents woman with the same kind of paradoxical model as having rape fantasies, the similarity being that a woman can no more find a happy, exciting, pleasant rape than she can get pregnant and still be a virgin. As Estelle says, ‘Listen,’ I said, ‘those aren’t RAPE fantasies. I mean, you aren‘t getting RAPED, it ‘s just some guy you haven’t met formally who happens to be more attractive than Derek Cummins,… and you have a good time. Rape is when they’ve got a knife or something and you don’t want to’ (32).Training" is about a young man (mid-teens) named Rob, who works with disabled kids at an outdoor camp. He takes a particular liking to Jordan, who has to be restrained in her wheelchair due to seizures and involuntary muscle spasms. He has taken the job because he comes from a long line of doctors, but as a sensitive child, he has not learned to be clinical in the face of infirmity -- everything affects him. Some of the other patients, boys, are both handicapped and bullies, especially to Rob. An unfortunate incident at the talent show changes everything, and Rob accidentally receives his critical distance. Another mark of Atwood’s fiction is her creation of landscapes, such as the horrendous futuristic milieu of Offred in The Handmaid’s Tale (1985) or the constricted, myopic anorexia of Marian in The Edible Woman (1969). The landscapes, although consciously penned, tend to register in the unconscious and, consequently, to haunt the reader long after her work is finished. The landscape in this story is not as vividly drawn as that in some others, but one gets an uneasy sense of the drab office, the dreary bar, and the hungry city eager to consume yet another witless victim. Problema noastră, mi se părea mie, era că nici în lumea din jur și nici în viitorul care se întindea în fața noastră nu exista o imagine a ceea ce am fi putut ajunge. Eram prizonieri în prezent ca într-un vagon de metrou blocat, altfel gol, iar în această izolare ne agățam ursuzi fiecare de umbra celuilalt." La sangre, el fluido elemental, el jugo de la vida, subproducto del nacimiento, preludio de la muerte.

The Man From Mars" holds up all too well, a skin-crawling story about a "well-meaning" stalker who harrasses a college girl. It's made clear that the man, also a student, is from another country and may not understand personal barriers so well. Nonetheless, he is a stalker, and the experience is rendered in uncomfortable detail. One of the best stories in the collection, but not a happy read.Rămas-bun", îți spun, așteptând privirea ta îngândurată, plină de regret. Ar trebui să-mi întorci spatele și să te îndepărtezi, dincolo de cuferele vechi, după colț, în spălătorie, și să dispari în spatele mașinii de spălat și al uscătorului; însă tu nu te clintești."