Blame in Friendswood

I’ve read a lot of Friendswood by Rene Steinke since my last post, and now I’m a couple chapters into the third part. My English class has discussed the concept of blame as it relates to the novel. We defined blame as a “discharge of pain and discomfort”. People use blame to criticize, accuse, punish, and humiliate others, and the characters of Friendswood exemplify this idea over both the issue with the chemical dumping at Banes Field and of Willa’s rape. This brings to light some questions about blame in the Friendswood community. 

How does Hal use blame to protect Cully and himself?  What is Hal trying to protect himself from? 

Cully and possibly two others guys got Willa drunk and raped her. But that’s not the story Cully tells his father Hal. He only tells him that he had sex with a girl he found with his friend later. Hal blames that girl for being a slut instead of blaming Cully for having sex with her in the first place. It would be painful for Cully to lose his innocence and good reputation, so Hal wants to protect Cully from facing the consequences of his actions and growing up. The school only suspended Cully for two weeks so he could go back to playing football. That doesn’t teach him anything. He later gets into a fight in school and is taken off the team, but Hal and his wife Darlene won’t stand for it. Cully is a good kid and a star football player, and they won’t let him grow out of that bubble. 

Hal goes to Coach Salem, Cully’s football coach, and tells him “his son had done a stupid thing, but he was a smart boy, and he hoped this wouldn’t impact his game. He just needed to be forgiven” (Steinke 228). This act is significant because it shows Hal doesn’t want Cully to receive punishment for his wrongful actions. He wants the coach, and everyone else, to forgive Cully without giving him any consequences and move on. If they move on, he can continue to see Cully the innocent child he was in the past. 

Hal lives in the past. This can be seen when he talks to Avery Taft. He wants to reminisce about high school with an old friend. “When I came back to the house, it all came back to me, how your folks used to have us over” (Steinke 206), he says. Then he talks about his memories, and this isn’t the first time Hal spends a lot of time thinking about the past. In fact, Hal consistently lives in the past, so much so that he needs to protect himself from the discomfort of the present. Cully needs to grow up and face responsibility for his actions, and it is painful for Hal to see that. So he blames others instead of Cully. He blamed Willa for what happened at the party. He blamed his wife for not seeing that Cully was drunk. And he likely won’t stop blaming others to protect Cully and himself any time soon.

Living in the past is a problem for a lot of people. The video below by YouTube channel The School of Life sheds some light upon why that is.

 Discuss Dex’s mother’s reaction to learning that perhaps Dex attended the party.  Who does she blame?  What does her response reveal about her character? 

Dex’s mother is very angry about the rape that happened at the party. “I just don’t like what it says about this place that something like that could go on here” (Steinke 181), she says. She obviously feels strongly about the reputation of the town, and she doesn’t want any of the Friendswood adolescents to rape or be raped. 

She, rightfully, blames the rapists for Willa’s rape. “Those boys need to learn that not everything comes to them—they’re not entitled” (Steinke 179), she says. But she also blamed the bystanders for letting Willa be raped. She says, “There were all these boys there just sitting drinking downstairs or swimming. Why didn’t they do anything to stop it? It just kills me that boys here would do that, boys I’ve had in my own house” (Steinke 181). She displaces the cause of Willa’s pain onto the bystanders. 

She doesn’t know for sure if Dex was also at the party, and although she may have had a suspicion, she “trusted him too much” (Steinke 181) and believed him when he said he only heard about it. But Dex actually was at the party. So even if she doesn’t mean to, by blaming the bystanders, she blames Dex for being unable to stop the rape, too. 

Her response reveals that she is a passionate and outspoken character. She feels strongly about the reputation of her community and the well-being of her son’s peers. And she isn’t afraid to speak her mind and make her opinions known. Both of these points are shown when she speaks up for Willa at her daughter’s costume meeting and another mother says Willa should have known that boys can’t control themselves. That’s not a valid excuse, and Dex’s mom calls her out for it. 

Dex begins to befriend Willa. Is his friendship genuine?  Why does he befriend Willa?  Does he blame himself for what happens to her? 

Dex had a crush on Willa before she was raped by Cully, which is why he originally tried to befriend her during their English class. His feelings for her haven’t changes since her unfortunate experience, though, and his friendship with her is stronger and more genuine now. He doesn’t blame her for what happened to her. He wants to protect her from the rumors and bad reputation Cully and his friends create for her through blaming her. 

He hears the rumors about Willa asking to come to the party and having sex with three guys that day, and he realizes how important it is that he protects her. “He started to put the pieces together … and his defense of Willa felt even more crucial—as if it would prove something important to himself” (Steinke 210). He feels a moral obligation to help Willa because it seems like so many people have turned against her for bad reasons. This is why his protection of her is so significant. There aren’t a lot of people on her side. Dex partners with Willa on an English project and meets up with her in public, so the next day in school, Cully’s friends warn him about the trouble she causes. This angers Dex enough to start a fight with them and quit being the football team’s trainer as a way to stand up for Willa. She might not realize it yet, but Dex is a good, genuine friend. 

As previously stated, Dex’s mother blames the bystanders for not stopping Willa’s rape. She doesn’t know for sure if Dex was also at the party, so even if she doesn’t mean to, she partly blames Dex for being unable to stop the rape, too. This may also influence Dex’s own blame on himself. He hasn’t said that he blames himself outright yet, but as I quoted above, he says he has something he needs to prove to himself. And it may be that he needs to prove that he can protect Willa although he didn’t when he could have. 

I’m looking forward to learning what happens next in Friendswood.

Works Cited

School of Life, The. “Why It Is So Hard to Live in the Present.” YouTube, YouTube, 9 Sept. 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mse6ziaefhm.

Steinke, René. Friendswood. Riverhead Books, 2014.