Alice rape incident is considered a precipitating event because this was a sudden event which eventually caused ineffective coping. Alice was a freshman in college attending …show more content…
Mary Alice then became very conscious and aware that her good friend Alice had been raped. Mary was with Alice every step of the way to make sure Alice was ok and to let her know I’m here for you through it all. Mary knew Alice was hurting but Mary knew how to cheer Alice up even through the bad and Alice was so grateful to have an amazing friend who was there by her side and still looked at her as “Alice” not “THE GIRL THAT HAS BEEN RAPED”. I believe Mary Alice took on the role of perceived meaning as well as her mother. Even though Alice’s mom had issues of her own when Alice called and told her mom the news her mom was right at the school to protect her little girl. And protecting her from all the starring eyes all the way down to having Alice’s back at the dinner table when her dad “Bud” made an ignorant remark stating ‘how could you have been raped if he didn’t have the knife in his hand’. Alice’s mom couldn’t understand how she was feeling but at the end of the day she was well aware that her baby girl had just been through something horrific and knew Bud didn’t have a right to say what he did out of his …show more content…
Since Alice and Mary was a little girl their mother’s behavior was abnormal but as well she never seemed happy neither. Growing up they witnessed their mother as an alcoholic nut at the time but they didn’t know she was an alcoholic they figured she never wanted to be bothered. Once Mrs. Sebold became sober from time to time she dealt with “flap” during those times her mood was very unpredictable. The guy who raped Alice as well dealt functionally debilitating state. During the crisis his emotions was all over; one minute he was angry, brutal, high anxiety, emotional crying, apologetic. He was very unpredictable.
When Mary got home she went straight to her room eventually locking herself in the bathroom crying her eyes out. Instead of talking to Alice about what happened she went straight into defense mode. Bud as well put up defense mechanisms; instead of him understanding what happened to Alice he rather locks himself up in his study room and read all day or say insulting things to Alice about her being raped. It wasn’t that they didn’t care it was more of not knowing what to say or do to make Alice feel better so this was there way of dealing with the