Did Hakan succeed in raping Eli ?

[dongregg]

This is what I referred to, without being specific. People may differ about whether penetration is a requirement for an act to be called "rape". Personally, I'd say Eli was raped.

True

According to the politically correct paradigm, rape is an act of violence and is not sexual. Camille Paglia (Sexual Personae) disagrees -- Rape is principally sexual, but sex is such a powerful force that it cannot be contained in any kind of neat definition. Instead of saying that Eli was or wasn't raped, I am comfortable with saying that Eli was a victim of sexual battery perpetrated by Zombie/Håkan.

[sauvin]

This is what I referred to, without being specific. People may differ about whether penetration is a requirement for an act to be called "rape". Personally, I'd say Eli was raped.

True

According to the politically correct paradigm, rape is an act of violence and is not sexual. Camille Paglia (Sexual Personae) disagrees -- Rape is principally sexual, but sex is such a powerful force that it cannot be contained in any kind of neat definition. Instead of saying that Eli was or wasn't raped, I am comfortable with saying that Eli was a victim of sexual battery perpetrated by Zombie/Håkan.

How about we not do this?

How about we not rob this crime of the profound physical and emotional havoc it can wreak on its victims by skating around its primeval ugliness, referring to it instead with carefully hand crafted and glossily painted up pseudo-technical language like "sexual battery perpetrated by..."?

He was brutally raped.

Earlier in the novel is at least one instance where he almost specifically prohibits it ("no, you can't do that. You can touch, but that's all", or words to such effect); it's inconceivable that Eli would have consented to that kind of intimate contact with the monster.

Whatever else he, she or "it" might have been, Eli is/was a preteen who had been overpowered by a man probably more than a head taller than he, with at least twice the body mass and easily twice the physical strength. The fact that the monster apparently "only" came within a gnat's whisker of actually violating the boy in one of his most personal, private and sensitive places with something that must have seemed bigger than a baseball bat is irrelevant. The fact that the boy didn't have to contend with torn flesh and internal bruising is irrelevant. Except for where it affected his ability to fight or flee, his riven sinews are irrelevant. He knew it was coming, had time to dread its coming, and (given their physical natures) had time to dread having to endure this process for a very long time.

Wasn't there in the novel an earlier passage where Eli remembers what happened to him while he was being turned, in which he said to himself that "nobody will ever hurt me again"? If he'd been brought up into our culture, where victims are expected to behave and feel like victims, it's more than faintly possible he wouldn't have survived the morning.

I don't think he was complaining just about his physical injuries when he thought he'd never be whole again.

Don't get "comfortable" with it.

[intrige]

In the same way sex can be many different things, rape can also be. The defention is that if you are forced in any way to partake in something sexual you are being raped. It can be everything from: "Do it for me honey." To, .. what Eli experienced. Physical force. I would say yes, most defenetly yes, Eli was raped. JAL's publisher refused to publish his book unless he rewrote something the publisher found disgusting. I asume this sevene with a suksessful rape was what had to be changed. Poor little Eli anyhow.
If someone tries to rape you and part your legs to hard that they break from your curvex. I am sure you also would think you would never be whole again.
Pretty heavy topic you guys.

I can't help but think about when Håkan and Eli made that deal. And then Håkan went out to get blood and he got caught. Then Oskar and Eli goes out to play and before Oskar hugs Eli, Eli looks up at the dark windows of his and Håkan's apartment. Håkan had been gone for days, but when he came back,, Håkan woukd want the reward. Then Eli looked so awful that Oskar just had to hug him. Imagine what he was thinking.
Either, I am hungry. Or: Håkan is not coming back, not another one. Or: When he comes back I will have a dreadful night with him.
The last one hits hardest, and it is just so sad. That poor child. Oskar sure picked the right time to give him a nice non-sexual hug of confort. I am sure, as they leave Blackeberg, Eli will get many hugs like that.

[a_contemplative_life]

This is what I referred to, without being specific. People may differ about whether penetration is a requirement for an act to be called "rape". Personally, I'd say Eli was raped.

True

According to the politically correct paradigm, rape is an act of violence and is not sexual. Camille Paglia (Sexual Personae) disagrees -- Rape is principally sexual, but sex is such a powerful force that it cannot be contained in any kind of neat definition. Instead of saying that Eli was or wasn't raped, I am comfortable with saying that Eli was a victim of sexual battery perpetrated by Zombie/Håkan.

If we want to think about it in legal terms, we could say that "rape" is sexual intercourse against a victim's will by force, threat, or intimidation. It requires proof of sexual intercourse with another compelled by force and against the complainant's will, or compelled by threat of bodily injury. The evidentiary elements of forcible rape are:

(1) anal or vaginal sexual intercourse regardless of degree of penetration;

(2) lack of consent of the victim;

(3) a victim who was prevented from resisting by force or threat of physical violence; and

(4) a victim who reasonably believed that resistance would not prevent the rape.

"Sexual assault" would typically be viewed as a broader term that does not require some degree of penetration.

Of course, it is perfectly acceptable to look at the text from a narrow perspective, or adopt some other point of view.

[dongregg]

Poorn Eli. Any way you label it, it's just awful. Thank you, Trige, for this thought:

"Oskar sure picked the right time to give him a nice non-sexual hug of comfort. I am sure, as they leave Blackeberg, Eli will get many hugs like that. "

[BravoHotel]

I'm with ACl rape by the majority of definitions I've seen is penetrative.
Although Hakan did succeed in getting between Eli's buttocks IIRC so that does blur the lines a little I suppose?
Either way rape and whatever the act Hakan committed must be incredibly horrific and damaging for the victim.
Between that the burning and leg damage I thought all of these were what Eli refferred to when he thought he would never be whole again.