AGREEABLE by Jonathan Franzen (New Yorker June 22, 2010)

　　Patty was raped by Ethan, son of a politically influential man. She resisted him, but in vain. He mistook her for an easy girl. 　　Patty’s softball coach, Nagel, tells her to go to the police, but her mother, Joyce, concealing her real intention, asks what Patty wants to do. Furthermore, her father, a lawyer, tells her to drop it and move on because no jury, no judge will believe that Patty had resisted. 　　Patty was disappointed at her parents, and gives up accusing Ethan. Soon Patty devotes herself to playing basketball and establishes splendid records. She even was “beyond caring what Joyce did.” 　　The writer tackled the theme, “The weaker are compelled to swallow the insults hurled by the stronger.” Her father says, “It is horrendously unfair.” The only, though slightly, consoling part is that Patty uses the insults as fuel in attaining basketball records. All in all, the ending of the story is frustrating. Something is wrong with society. Maybe that is what Franzen wanted to convey to the reader. Beginning: 　　If Patty hadn't been an atheist, she might have thanked the good Lord for athletic programs, because they basically saved her life and gave her a chance to realize herself as a person. Ending: 　　Her look of bitterness would not have helped Joyce's cause.