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Sarah Hoogenraad

Professor Marx

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28 April 2017

Life Has Killed the Dream I Dreamed

Oppression comes in many different forms; it can be physical, audible, even

psychological. Victims of sexual assault experience all of these forms of oppression. They are

physically violated, scarring them psychologically, and then reprimanded for an experience that

was not their fault. People are constantly trying to justify why a person was raped, why it was

their own fault, and why the rapist was “innocent.” The victims are blamed for a choice that

another person made. Some of these issues are reflected in the character of Fantine in the 2012

film Les Miserables, based off of Victor Hugo’s novel of the same title. Even with all of the odds

against them, both socially and medically, victims of rape still stand strong, and Victor Hugo’s

character Fantine allows us an opportunity to analyze why that strength exists.

Survivors of sexual assault face more hardships than just the people around them; they

are affected mentally. According to a study on the psychological issues of rape, victims

commonly experience fear and anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, poor

self-esteem, social adjustment issues, and sexual dysfunctions (Resick). The individuals who are

sexually harassed are not only oppressed in the moment of harassment. The attacker’s choice

affects more than just the victim’s body, it affects their minds psychologically, with similar

severe symptoms as those seen in soldiers returning from battlegrounds (Murthy). In 2013,

another study was conducted where women between 57 and 85 were interviewed, with an

average of 36 years passed since their respective assaults. It was determined that these women
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still had these same symptoms affecting them (Sachs-Ericcson). The point being, the attacker’s

quick decision did not have a quick effect for the victims. The repercussions were, and are, long

lasting and harmful, and really should not be brushed off as the victim playing for dramatics.

Far too often, however, the victims of rape are pushed aside and ignored; society has a

way of silencing survivors of sexual assault, in many different ways. End Campus Rape, an

organization that urges students to speak out against sexual assault on their campuses, gives

some jarring statistics about the realities of society’s, even students’, views on rape culture.

According to their website, 2-8% of rape charges may be false, but students believe that up to

50% are completely fabricated (“End Campus Sexual Assault”). There is a ridiculous stigma that

people will believe that the victims are lying anyways, and the victims have reason to believe

that people will not believe their reports, because they statistically will not. It is unreasonable to

believe that rape victims would be willing to simply come forward and speak out about their

experiences. According to the National Institute of Justice, some people did not even want to

report their rape because of a personal connection. Their website states, “Traditionally, rape

notification rates differed depending on whether the victim knew the perpetrator — those who

knew a perpetrator were often less likely to report the crime” (“Rape and Sexual Violence”).

When the assaulter personally knows the victim, it is even less likely for the survivor to report,

as the connection makes the report have even stronger repercussions, because their intertwined

lives affect one another, and the people around them. Even though these people have commit

crimes against them, the oppressed individuals are often times not willing to report simply in an

attempt to keep their life the way it was before the assault happened. Even the United States as a

country itself stands against these victims. In thirty-one states, rapists are allowed to ask for

visitation and custody of children that they have biologically fathered, born as a result of the rape
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(Zuckerman). The United States legislation is not doing enough to help these victims, and it is

laws like this that make the victims of assault want to stay silent.

The silencing is not 100% successful, however; while it is true that many victims stay

silent, there are still many victims that use their voices even louder to make up for the voices

lost. In 1994, Kellie Greene was raped in the laundry room of her apartment building. She stayed

silent for some time, and eventually it took three years to find her attacker. She refocused her

anger on a goal “of educating the world about rape and how it affects the life of a victim and his

or her family and loved ones” (“SOAR”). She founding Speaking Out About Rape, or SOAR.

According to their website, their mission statement says, “Speaking Out About Rape, Inc.®

(SOAR®) runs national awareness, education and prevention programs to empower survivors of

sexual violence and transform the public’s understanding and acceptance of rape victims”

(“SOAR”). Kellie was taken advantage of, and it is likely that she is feeling many if not all of the

different hardships that other survivors are feeling. However, rather than wallowing in her

sadness, she has taken the steps to make things better for herself, and she is giving an

opportunities to others to do the same. Many different organizations provide resources for

victims to heal and reclaim themselves, encouraging them to speak out. And many of these

organizations are founded by victims themselves, as a testament to their survival, and to the fact

that they have not been silenced into being powerless, but they have taken their tragic

experiences and turned them into something powerful. Another survivor, Kathryn Bailey, was

raped by her brother every week for four years as a child, but it was not until she was 23 years-

old that he was sentenced to 32 years in prison as punishment. It had taken her a long time to

come forward, but now that she has, she encourages all survivors to do the same. She states, “I

love the way I feel... I want others to feel that way,” (Dowty). She feels a new empowerment
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after seeing her attacker locked away, and rather than keeping that empowerment just to herself,

she spreads the message that everyone should follow what she has done, and experience the

empowerment for themselves. Rather than allowing the power to be taken away from them,

victims have the opportunity to use their hardships to empower other people.

To help with the understanding of what these victims go through, there is the character of

Fantine in Les Miserables, a victim of sexual assault. She is a single mother, and the audience

first meets her as she works in a factory. Her supervisor, the Foreman, aggressively flirts with all

of the women there, who are supposed to be pure before the Lord. The first verse in that scene

gives a description of what Fantine experiences at work with this man, stating:

Have you seen how the Foreman is fuming today? With his terrible breath and his

wandering hands? It's because little Fantine won't give him his way. Take a look at his

trousers, you'll see where he stands! And the boss, he never knows that the Foreman is

always in heat. If Fantine doesn't look out watch how she goes. She'll be out on the

street! (Les Miserables)

The women already know that because of Fantine’s reluctance to reciprocate the Foreman’s

advances, he is more than willing to rid her out of the job. They alert the Foreman that Fantine is

an unmarried mother, and she is quickly fired. She was not working for herself, however. She

was working to support her daughter, Cosette. She kept working in a job, enduring harassment

and maltreatment, all for her child’s sake. And even after she is wrongfully fired, she still does

everything in her power to continue to support Cosette. She begins selling her belongings, her

hair, and even one of her teeth, all in an effort to keep sending money to Cosette. She eventually

is forced into prostitution, a job in which she is repeatedly taken advantage of, to the point that

she does not give a man consent and is reported to the police. Still, her only priority is her
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daughter. Even on her deathbed, her main concern is that the main character, Jean Valjean, takes

care of her daughter. Fantine dies, but she is not silenced. Her love is reflected through Jean

Valjean, and through her daughter. She is physically silenced, but her legacy of love lives on

throughout the rest of the film, and she empowers Jean Valjean to live a better life, loving

Cosette as his own daughter. Her love is so important to the story that Jean Valjean remembers

her in his death, and she sings him to his rest. Fantine is symbolic for survivors of rape because

even though they’ve gone through physical turmoil and silencing, that does not mean that they

must stay silent. They can affect others and allow their story to leave a legacy to impact the lives

of others.

Rape victims are not just victims. They are survivors. They endure one of the most, if not

the most, scarring physical and emotional forms of assault, and yet so many of them still live

their lives empowering themselves and others. Even in extreme silencing, they can follow the

example of Fantine and live a legacy that impacts and empowers others for the better.
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Works Cited

Dowty, Douglass. "Rape Victim on Speaking Out: 'I Love the Way I Feel...I Want Others to Feel

That Way'." Syracuse.com. Advance Media New York, 06 Apr. 2017. Web.

<http://www.syracuse.com/crime/index.ssf/2017/04/rape_victim_on_speaking_out_i_lov

e_the_way_i_feeli_want_others_to_feel_that_way.html>.

"End Campus Sexual Assault." End Campus Rape. We Are UltraViolet, 2014. Web.

<http://endcampusrape.com/>.

Les Miserables. Dir. Tom Hooper. Perf. Hugh Jackman, Anne Hathaway and Russell

Crowe. Universal, 2012. DVD.

Murthy, R. S., and Rashmi Lakshminarayana. "Mental Health Consequences of War: A Brief

Review of Research Findings." World Psychiatry. US National Library of Medicine, 5

Feb. 2006. Web. <https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1472271/>.

"Rape and Sexual Violence." National Institute of Justice. N.p., 21 Mar. 2017. Web.

<https://www.nij.gov/topics/crime/rape-sexual-violence/Pages/welcome.aspx>.

Resick, Patricia A. "The Psychological Impact of Rape." Journal of Interpersonal Violence 8.2

(1993): 223-55. Sage Journals. Web.

Sachs-Ericcson, Natalie. "Aging & Mental Health." Taylor and Francis Online. Informa UK

Limited, 13 Feb. 2014. Web. <http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1360786

3.2014.884538?scroll=top&needAccess=true>.

"SOAR." Speaking Out About Rape. N.p., n.d. Web. <http://soar99.org/>.

Taschler, Miriam, and Keon West. "Contact with Counter-Stereotypical Women Predicts Less

Sexism, Less Rape Myth Acceptance, Less Intention to Rape (in Men) and Less
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Projected Enjoyment of Rape (in Women)." Sex Roles 76.7-8 (2016): 473 -

84. SpringerLink. Web.

Zuckerman, Esther. "31 States Allow Rapists Custody and Visitation Rights." The Atlantic.

Atlantic Media Company, 23 Aug. 2012. Web. <https://www.theatlantic.com/national/arc

hive/2012/08/31-states-grant-rapists-custody-and-visitation-rights/324369/>.