Writing effective short stories is probably more difficult than writing effective novels. You have very little space; you have to create viable, breathing characters in paragraphs instead of chapters; you have to weigh every word and know that it is essential or it must go; and you must convey something important, an idea, a thought, that lasts or has impact. Margaret Atwood does that like it is a science. The only thing that saves this from the one-star category is the fact that I can imaging my creative writing professors at Rochester assigning these sorts of short stories, because they are right in line with all of the ones I read for class. I would read and become a bit excited near the end of the first third of the story, hoping with a bit of anticipation that now, after this confusion and meandering, everything will add up and lead to something beautiful or horrendous or at least meaningful. But after finishing the second third of the story, I finally realize that no, the first third was exactly what was going to happen throughout, and I would be destined to finish the story without finding any purpose to it at all, but I would finish it anyway, because I had already invested time and energy in the first two-thirds, and darn it, if there was some surprise at the end that made everything make sense, I didn't want to be such a lazy reader that I would miss it. Estelle is above such criticism only because she can relate to her own feelings, and she is ready to trivialize and criticize the other characters because she believes she cannot relate to them, considering mostly their flaws.

Con el puño del abrigo hasta los nudillos, no tenía aspecto de ser titular de una tarjeta de crédito. Deseo explicarle lo que nadie le ha enseñado, cómo se comportan dos personas que se quieren, que evitan hacerse daño, pero no estoy segura de saber. Only when we reach the end of ‘Rape Fantasies’, however, do we realise that the story’s actual – and very relevant – setting is the one from which the narrator speaks, the ‘here’ that she mentions in the story’s penultimate paragraph. ‘Here’ is a bar where our lonely, single, chatterbox speaks to a man… Atwood lets us know all of this about Estelle without directly saying that she is competitive, gossipy, nice, talkative, silly, domineering, funny, etc. She creates a well- rounded character that expresses her within the framework of her own fantasy world. Lisa Tyler says,” Estelle is a likable character with whom they can readily sympathize. She is frightened at the prospect of dating potentially dangerous strangers, but she id frightened, too, by the prospect of a solitary life.The way they’re going on about it in the magazines you’d think it was just invented, and not only that but it’s something terrific. Su madre aprovechó para decir que el problema con las personas de otra cultura era que nunca sabía si estaban locos o no, porque sus pautas de comportamiento eran muy distintas. Incluso quienes jamás irían a los lugares que ella describía, quienes no podrían permitírselo, no querían oír hablar de peligros, ni siquiera de incomodidades; era como si desearan creer que quedaba un lugar en el mundo donde todo iba bien, donde no ocurría nada desagradable.

Analyzes how women like estelle and her co-workers were content to be categorized into such roles. the women's rights movement fought hard for equal pay, equal employment opportunities, birth control, and the right to control their own bodies. Resucito a través de la ropa. Tanto es así que me resulta imposible recordar lo que hice, lo que me sucedió, a menos que recuerde lo que llevaba puesto. Siempre que deshecho un suéter o un vestido, deshecho parte de mi vida. I mean, I know it happens but I just don’t understand it, that’s the part I really don’t understand (36-37). These two sentences capture the irony of a woman giving her interpretation of the rapist when she readily admits that she does not understand the feelings of someone who would actually do it. It is the irony of a situation that could never be pleasant, yet the potential victims of the violent act of rape happily daydream and converse about participation. But this allows us to accept Estelle as a genuine person with both clear and faulty thinking, and both good and bad personality traits. The premise that “all women have rape fantasies” is a hasty generalization that the magazines use to fuel the female readers’ fancies about rape. For example, Darlene asserts, “I certainly don’t (have rape fantasies).” Darlene’s assertions refute the argument presented in the magazine concerning the generality of rape fantasies. Even though the Magazines put forward statistical proof to validate that the fantasies involve recognizable people such as bosses, all the rape fantasies presented by the narrator and her associates involve unacquainted men. If the characters in “Rape Fantasies” were a sample used to assess the hypothesis relating to the familiarity of rapists in rape fantasies, then the hypothesis would be false. No lo imaginaba en el ejército, ni en ningún bando; no encajaba con él, y , hasta donde sabía no tenía ideología alguna. Debía de ser algo anodino, al margen, como ella; tal vez se había hecho intérprete.

Estelle is, then, revealed best when the author simply allows her to speak. To have told the story in the third person would have removed the tone and wealth of information that hearing Estelle’s voice provides. Nos amamos, eso es cierto signifique lo que signifique, pero no nos amamos bien: para algunos es talento, para otros adicción. A monologue is a speech given by one person in a performance or work of literature. The entire narrative of "Rape Fantasies" is a monologue by Estelle. By creating a story in which the point of view is first-person and everything, including the descriptions, actions, and words of the other characters are filtered through the narrator's perception, Atwood creates a highly subjective story in which much of the interpretation is up to the reader. This is one reason why criticism on first-person stories, including "Rape Fantasies," often focuses on whether or not the narrator is reliable. If the narrator is reliable, then his or her words can probably be taken at face value, and little other interpretation of events need take place. If, however, the narrator is not reliable, readers must exercise caution in interpreting the events of the story. Atwood provides few clues to suggest how reliable a narrator Estelle is. While she seems to give biting and accurate character descriptions—describing Chrissy as "varnished," and even commenting negatively on herself as someone who cries at movies, "even the ones that aren't all that sad"—there is no alternate point of view in the story to corroborate the things she says. Las mujeres siempre se sienten impulsadas a apaciguar a los hombres que tratan de ligárselas, al rechazarlos.

I prefer Atwood's novels to her short stories but I've had this book for eons and figured it was time to read it. And sure enough, I was nonplussed by most of the stories, hated a few, and enjoyed fewer still. Arguably, what many women visualize is agreeable sex (which is not the same as rape) with ‘handsome strangers.’ The narrator confesses, “Maybe I’m abnormal or something, I mean I have fantasies about handsome strangers coming in through the window too, like Mr. Clean, I wish one would, please somebody without flat feet and big sweat marks on his a shirt, and over five feet tall.” The narrator’s aspiration cannot be categorized as rape fantasy because she is envisaging herself having sex with her idyllic man. Accordingly, she would not repel the man’s attempts to be intimate with her because it is what she yearns. Conversely, in a rape fantasy, woman resorts to actions to thwart the rapist’s efforts to intrude upon her body. Es la calma ininterrumpida, tanto interna como externa, lo que la irrita. A todo el mundo le ocurren cosas, ¿por qué no a mí?, piensa. Por otra parte, está convencida de que sí ocurren cosas a su alrededor, pero que se las ocultan. Kui kunagi arvasin, et mulle ei meeldi lühijutte lugeda, siis pean oma arvamust korrigeerima. Tegelikult naudin lühijutte ja novelle väga - enne magamajäämist paras üks lugemisamps võtta. :)Todo el mundo cree que los escritores saben más acerca de la mente humana, pero es un error. Saben menos. Por eso escriben. Para tratar de descubrir lo que todos los demás dan por sentado. The themes of this story are the quotes that are displayed through the paper and the definition of rape, why it’s taking lightly and how is the issue getting solved.

Problema noastră, mi se părea mie, era că nici în lumea din jur și nici în viitorul care se întindea în fața noastră nu exista o imagine a ceea ce am fi putut ajunge. Eram prizonieri în prezent ca într-un vagon de metrou blocat, altfel gol, iar în această izolare ne agățam ursuzi fiecare de umbra celuilalt." Although the references are not always blatant, Atwood habitually touches on feminist issues in her work. It would seem, on first reading, that “Rape Fantasies” is an exception; however, on digging deeper, one can identify the locus of emptiness, isolation, and desperation that defines many of Atwood’s other female protagonists. Thus, a victim is still a victim regardless of the cause of her victimization. Although much of the barrenness and despair in the life of this character originates from within Estelle herself, it is heightened by her perceived hostile environment and her friend-less plunge into the group-dominated universe of the city. Developed through the literary device of dramatic monologue, this story presents virtually no exposition and little recognizable plot. The reader must wait patiently for tidbits of information while wading through the inane rambling utterances of a protagonist who is obviously speaking to a male not directly involved in the story. Aceasta mi-a plăcut cel mai mult, deși mai sunt destule notate cu 5*: Omul de pe Marte, Betty, Polarități, Pregătire, Dansatoarele ș.a.Her next story begins the same way as the first. This time she describes the rapist. She makes you believe that all rapists are lonely depressed guys who feel that their last resort in getting “some” is to rape a female. So being the kind hearted victim that she is she advised him that he got a makeover he wouldn’t have to go around raping everyone. All of Estelle’s stories end with her helping out the rapist or getting out of being raped. To me that is what a rape fantasy should be. It starts off as a unpleasant scenario but plays out to be a good ending. Fantasies are desires and wants no one wants to be raped and in a fantasy. In a rape fantasy the out come is that you don’t get raped.