Lust Case

Upon reading Minot's Lust, something was extremely captivating, as I assume it would be for any girl in the 21st century. Each excerpt from the protagonist is surprising real, and it's not the detailed or undetailed recounts, but the analysis of each. Lust seems to be a perception tool into every teenage girl's mind. I, myself, am very perceptive which allowed me to connect to the story that much more as I began to compare our reserved thoughts of past experiences. Although the protagonist and I had un-similar actions, the idea that we, as teenage women, consciously or unconsciously victimize ourselves to men is quite true.

While our evolving nature tells us to be more independent in society, the idea of lust allows us to fall quite deeply into a trap that consumes our actions and our idea of our worth; both of which, lead us to feel this victimization. But Minot's story makes me think twice about who causes this feeling. Women, as the protagonist in the story pose as an example, are perpetuating themselves to be dependent on men. They are victims of themselves, which Minot expresses in her last expert in the story: "Then comes after. After when they don't look at you... You're gone. Their blank look tells you that the girl they were fucking is not there anymore. You seem to have disappeared (465)." It's not that men and this feeling of lust has taken their minds hostage, but these girls have denied the opportunity to take responsibility for themselves and their perpetual dependence on turning lust into something more.

I can agree that even I have drifted from boy to boy at one point in time, looking for insignificant filler. But Minot's recounts and analysis of common experiences for adolescents are ones to take into consideration on what drives this conception that lust controls our self-worth. I believe we are refusing to allow ourselves the independence and responsibility to control our emotions as growing girls.

Miller, D. Quentin, and Julie Nash. Connections: Literature for Composition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2008. Print.