Roxane Gay's 'The Mark Of Cain'

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Roxane Gay is a prolific writer of feminist stories that explore the struggles of women in the modern-day society. Gay explores themes of “feminism, identity, and pop culture,” as well as “sexual violence and rape culture” (Ostberg). These themes, especially sexual violence, are present throughout the story. Gay’s short story, “The Mark of Cain” highlights the cycle of abuse through the symbolic title, Gay’s personal experiences, and the recurring theme of abuse. The title, “The Mark of Cain” symbolizes the cycle of abuse through its reference to the story of Cain and Abel. In short, the story of Cain and Abel is a biblical story within Genesis about two brothers, one of whom, Cain, kills Abel in a fit of rage after “the Lord accepted the offering …show more content…

The. Although the original mark of Cain is not known whether it was physical or metaphorical, the title of Gay’s short story is a metaphor for the mark placed on the abused. If someone were to kill Cain, then they would suffer greater pain than Cain, despite Cain’s own crime. This is a cycle of continual suffering where the murderer suffers a painful fate as a result of their actions. Caleb and Jacob, just like Cain and Abel, are also brothers, with Caleb aligning with Cain and Jacob aligning with Abel. Despite the two brothers representing Cain and Abel, that is where the similarities end as they merely represent the idea of Cain and Abel. In addition, the metaphorical mark of Cain works in reverse in Gay’s story as the abuser passes the mark on instead of an abuser receiving the mark because of their own actions. The father of Caleb and Jacob passed the metaphorical mark to his son Caleb through his constant physical, mental, and sexual abuse. Then Caleb passed the mark to the unnamed protagonist, with the conclusion of the story setting up the protagonist’s children to suffer the mark in a vicious cycle of never-ending abuse. Gay draws upon her own personal experience of sexual abuse to highlight the horrific and tragic cycle of …show more content…

Consequently, Gay uses her own experience with rape to make an example of how detrimental abuse as a whole is for an entire lineage. Gay demonstrates this through Caleb and Jacob’s father, as he is the catalyst for Caleb’s abuse and Jacob’s neglectfulness. The father of the twins was incredibly abusive as he was a drunkard who beat the twins and had some part in the death of their mother, whether intentional or because of the abuse (Gay). Despite the severe abuse, the twins “rewrote their past until they had beatified their father's memory,” though this was most likely a coping method for the severe trauma they endured in addition to the sudden death of their father (Gay). Just like Gay herself, the twins have a coping mechanism, although the methods of coping are different. Unfortunately, Caleb falls victim to the cycle of abuse through his constant physical and sexual abuse of the protagonist. The reoccurring theme of abuse through the characters within the story highlights the cycle of abuse that plagues society. At the beginning of the story, the first sentence explains how Caleb “is not a kind man”

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