Preview

John Irving's The Water-Method Man: Sex without Love

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1117 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
John Irving's The Water-Method Man: Sex without Love
Sex Without Love

When two people love each other, it is natural for them to express their feelings to each other. Sex is considered to be the ultimate expression of the love two people have for each other. However, love is not always the reason for sex. Sometimes sex happens without love. Sex without love has various influences on people in their lives. Rape causes long lasting scars on peoples lives, sex is often used as a form of healing, and prostitution is a way of life for some people.

Rape causes long lasting scars on peoples lives. Rape is forcing another person to submit to sexual intercourse. The person committing the rape receives a sense of power over the person he is raping. When Chipper Dove and friends rape Franny they do not do it only for sexual satisfaction. Franny is in love with Chipper Dove and she is willing to have sex with him, but he feels the need to rape her anyway. She was "prepared for him, [she'd] even imagined it - with him. [She] always knew it would be him - the first time - somehow ... [She] even told him that they didn't have to force [her], that [she'd] let him," (The Hotel New Hampshire, Page 99). She tells herself that "when someone touches you and you don't want to be touched, that's not being touched ... they don't really get the you in you," (The Hotel New Hampshire, Page 101). However Suzie, who is an expert on rape counselling, says that this is not possible. Chipper Dove continues to have this hold on Franny for a very long time afterwards. She becomes a lesbian while in Vienna. It is not until after they return to New York that Chipper Dove enters their lives again. To get him back, they put on a show and make him think that he is about to get raped by "a bear in heat,"(The Hotel New Hampshire, Page 357). Seeing him scared in this way shows Franny that he does not have the power and control that she thought he had. This allows her to get on with her life. This shows once again the effect rape has. Chipper Dove sees how

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Laura and Miss Dove

    • 782 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Laura and Miss Dove both have made life changes because of a death that has affected them in some way. Miss Dove made an extreme life change after her father died. She became secluded and showed little emotion or care for anyone. She was closed off from society. Miss Dove then starts to plan everything out, so nothing would be unexpected that she could not control again, like the death of her father. As the story progresses she begins to lose that attitude slightly. For example, she was swept up in the emotions of her class by crying with her students. This is the only time in the story she is seen showing more than mild emotions. William Holloway is the only person who remembers of Miss Dove showing any kind of respect towards anyone. Laura’s traumatic situation was never witnessed by her, but she still took it to heart. A man lands on his head off a horse and dies in front of her family’s house. She gained a new perspective on the world that day. She began questioning things she would have agreed to when she was naïve. The death of a man she never knew affected her life more than anything else has before.…

    • 782 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Cathy and Chris are angry that their mother was on vacation while they nearly starved, but she shouts at them for thinking she doesn't care about them when she provides necessaries for them and refuses to visit with them until they apologize. Their grandmother continues to abuse them, and even whips both Cathy and Chris when he talks back at her. Due to their confinement, Cathy and Chris become sexually attracted to each other. They also begin plotting an escape. After distracting their mother during a visit, they take the room's key and make an impression of it in a bar of soap from which they carve a wooden copy. To finance their escape, they secretly steal jewels and money from their mother and stepfather. One night, Chris is ill, so Cathy goes alone. She encounters her stepfather sleeping in his chair. Curious and confused, she kisses him. Days later, Chris finds out about the kiss when he overhears his stepfather telling his mother about what he thought was a dream. Chris rapes Cathy in a jealous rage. Afterward, they feel tremendous guilt and shame. Chris sincerely apologizes to Cathy, who forgives him because she knew he didn't mean to do it. Chris professes his love to Cathy, and although she reciprocates his feelings, she is unsure of how to…

    • 1360 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    One spring day, Melinda catches a fever and stays home. While in complete solitude, she reflects on her rape and has a Oprah Winfrey show going on in her head.The evidence states, “My head is killing me, my throat is killing me, my stomach bubbles with toxic waster. I just want to sleep. A coma would be nice. Or amnesia. Anything, just to get rid of this, this thoughts, whispers in my mind. Did he rape my mind too?” (Anderson, 165) When Melinda Sordino says “My head is killing me, my throat is killing me, my stomach bubbles with toxic waste.” She is metaphorically talking about how sick she is from coping with the feelings of depression and solitude. “I just want to sleep. A coma would be nice. Or amnesia.” She wants to forget what went down That August Night.“Anything, just to get rid of this, this thoughts, whispers in my mind. Did he rape my mind too?” What this shows is how badly Melinda being raped has such an effect on her mind. It is bruised her spirit and scarred her mind. What’s worse is…

    • 1323 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Psy 265 Final

    • 1574 Words
    • 7 Pages

    It’s no secret that we all have sex. Every person grows up as an individual, learning things about themselves as they go along, as well as learning about others. We all eventually end up calling someone else our significant other, whether it be of the same sex or not, and we all end up making personal decisions about our sexual identity and actions as we progress through life. We define our sexual identities of something unique to only us and we acquire our identities with a mix of influences: biological, psychological, social, cultures, values, and society in the time in which we are growing up. After such influences, we make the choice when to lose our virginity, when to start dating, whether or not to use precautions during sexual intercourse, when to bear our first child, and so on. There are many stages of life a person goes through before they actually know everything about themselves, know their true gender role, and sexual identity.…

    • 1574 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Drinking Coffee Elsewhere

    • 460 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Basing on both of the story, love does not equal sex, but both of them are necessary for a good relationship. Using courting a monk as an example, the couple in the story had love each other in the earlier stage in the story, but as the get married they got to have sex to maintain the good relationship. Moving on drinking coffee elsewhere, the narrator and Heidi started to love each other and they slept together for the whole winter, but they have never had sex as the narrator is overly protecting herself, and so when time moves on, they broke up because their relationship is not complete without a suitable amount of sex.…

    • 460 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Unfortunately, the rapist sets his eyes on Francie as his next victim. “ Reluctantly, he loosed his hold and backed down the two steps keeping his wet eyes on Katie… Katie stopped, knelt on a step, pushed her apron bulge between two banister spokes, stared at the exposed part of his body and pulled the trigger” (Smith 256). The stress of life catches on to Jonny especially when Katie reveals she is pregnant with her third child. The pressures of life ultimately result in Jonny’s death, which forces Francie and Neeley to be introduced into the business world. Katie cannot support herself and her three children alone; therefore she begins to rely on her children to help generate income. Katie could only afford to send one child to high school; she chooses to send Neeley despite his feelings and Francie’s feelings. While working, Francie decides she wants to further her education, however believes she surpasses the high school level of education. Therefore, Francie attends a summer college where she meets Ben Blake. France instantly gains feelings for him, however he makes it clear he has one item on his agenda, which is his future. After work one day, Francie meets a solider named Lee, she falls in love with him, but soon comes to the realization that he left a life behind him and has a wife. She is heartbroken and confides in her mother, where she further understands that the world is a cruel place.…

    • 1409 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Romantic love is nature’s way of selected breeding.. It makes you think, that you need the person to make you happy when all it is the baby’s will to be born. Thus, when two people are in love, they think they want sex, because they connect sex to love, but it is actually the baby that makes us think so. Thus, sex is for procreation but we think we want it because it makes us happy.…

    • 453 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The first and foremost fact that author brings in his article is that nowadays, sex is very crucial and defines many aspects of modern life. Not only it does play a major role…

    • 559 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Many people in society today are having casual sex outside of the marriage more and more. Has sex lost its true purpose and morality? If so, is this correct and morally acceptable? Alan Goldman and Roger Scruton see sex and the morality of sex very different. Goldman believes sex is just that, sex between two people for pleasure while Scruton believe sex should always have love and emotion with a spouse or long term relationship. What is the true morality of sex and who is correct? Sex should be between two consenting people, but does emotions and love have to go hand in hand with sex? Can there be morally acceptable sex without the love and emotions? Should sex be only with a life time partner or spouse or is sex morally acceptable…

    • 1338 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Multiplicity of the Consequences of love Love plays a critical role in the lives of people; life is better when there is love. However, there are still instances when love can be a nightmare. Often, people have gone beyond the norm to express love and either gained or lost considerably. Love plays a role in the life of humans that is more than that of an embellishment that feels pleasant to possess. It is fundamental to humanity, without it, humanity will be void.…

    • 1014 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hook Up Research Paper

    • 944 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Sex is different from both hook-ups and friends with benefits. Usually with sex, strong feelings are involved. Love and attraction are generally the sexual feelings. Not all the time will there be a romantic connection, like hook-ups or friends with benefits. Pleasure is usually the component of sexual feelings. The word sexual intercourse…

    • 944 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Love is a feeling when one feels the deep affection and sexual attachment for their partner. So partners have sexual intercourse to show how much they love each other. Palahniuk thinks differently, he deeply believes that love and sex are mutually exclusive. Palahniuk connects these two as opposites…

    • 1842 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Sexuality is one of those topics that everyone will have a different view. Depending on what values and beliefs shared, sex can range from casual and open to reserved and closed. Religion, culture, and personal beliefs all share a role in an individual’s sexual life. With all the value systems shared in our textbook, the following is the few I can relate with.…

    • 460 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    although sex has a biological foundation, sexual practices vary from place to place as an element of culture.…

    • 844 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In today’s society, we as men and women are burdened with a double standard of how one’s sex life is supposed to go. We hear from our friends and family, from churches and neighbors, that sex is something you do with the person you love and trust, someone who you are going to share the rest of your life with. Sex comes with marriage, and with marriage comes a promise that you will remain with this one person “’til death do us part.”…

    • 4072 Words
    • 17 Pages
    Powerful Essays