BCM+Non-fiction

BrittanyMcGrath

Brittany Carin McGrath. Mrs. Laurencot. Non-fiction essay assignment.

-The book “It Happened to Nancy” is about a poor 14-year-old who is raped and then tests HIV positive. This Horrific story relates to so much in life because these terrible, terrible, incidents happen to people of all ages and both genders daily. Many people have journals or diary’s to hold their most sacred thoughts and anything they don’t want to say aloud or can‘t say aloud. This one diary tells the story of this one young lady who lived with HIV and how she dealt with it for the rest of her short life. Not only is she raped by someone she thought she could trust, but she blames herself for it. Then after never speaking to her again, she finds out she is HIV positive, by this guy she loved, trusted, and thought she knew so well. After all of this she has to find a way to tell her best friends and even her new religious boyfriend. Although she is deadly infected and scared for life, she still has to live life like any other would (with the exception of the sicknesses and hospital visits). -Could you imagine being raped by someone you love and trust at 14? In most cases of rape, the victim knows and trusts the predator. Nancy says about Collin in her diary, “Collin was so sweet and so caring…” (page 21) This was how she really did feel about the man who raped her. Because she felt this way she refused to think he had done something so Horrid. Rapists’ do this to get in the head of the person they are raping so they blame themselves and don’t tattle. Nancy says “… but he really is a rapist. No, I brought it upon myself”(page 24) She said “no” over and over and he still continued. She fought with all her might and he still continued. He completely disrespected Nancy and her body, yet she still blames herself because she could not stop it. This is mostly because women (especially young women) are raped they want to blame themselves so they don’t have to accept the fact that someone else had total control over their body. -Most 14-year-olds are not even thinking about having sex and don’t consider sexual transmitted diseases. As Nancy keeps getting sicker and sicker, she finds out she’s HIV positive. “I’ve got to face it…. I AM GOING TO DIE….. I’m not going to have a career, or a husband, or a family.”(page 76) HIV is a scary thing, even if you don’t know all the details. In many life situations people with aids feel this way and sometimes even commit suicide. Also in the time this diary was written there was not the same medicine we have these days, so in most cases back then they did die young and not live the life they wanted to with a career, husband/wife, or family. Nancy died at 17 years old, never getting to live out her life to the longest and fullest she could. -How hard do you think is it to tell your best friends that you have HIV? I don’t think I could imagine.. Nancy doesn’t even tell her best friends she has HIV until months after finding out. Thinking they would be scared of her and back off, but they were comforting and understanding. In a show “Deggrassi” a young man has aids and doesn’t even tell any of his room mates until they found his bottle of pills. She had a hard time telling the people she loves most, when he couldn’t even tell the people he lived with. -This story shows how disgusting people are in our society now in days. Knowing they have aids and raping someone so young without any protection. It is sickening to know how ignoble people are. People are raped everyday by strangers, friends, partners, and sadly family members too. For people to read this book “It Happened to Nancy” may help them to help themselves and even others too. After/wile you read this you realize that anyone can be a rapist and you have to be more careful in life. This also teaches you a lot of information about HIV/aids you may not already know. -All in all, the book is a fascinating book for young teenagers to read. It tells you some of the dangers in life you might have never thought/herd of. It shows that it can really happen to any person at any time in your life. Terrible things happen every day and the best we can do is be aware and know what to do in a bad situation. The book does not talk about everything bad in life, but tells you basically “between the lines,” “This could be you,” a young adult dying when they did nothing wrong. Personally, being raped is one of my worst fears and I think all girls, women, boys, even men should fear it. I hope this book makes the same impact on the rest of the readers as it did for me.