The Grace Year

The Grace Year, the sixteenth year of each girl, isn't a grace, but rather a ridiculous swindle for men's profit. Girls are banished into the wild for a year to purge themselves of their dangerous magic that is believed to lure men to sin. After The Grace Year, each girl will become a wife or a lowly worker. But not all of them will make it home alive. Tierney didn't believe this absurd magic and dreamed of a free life, so she had to fight against the rules and survive The Grace Year. Eventually, Tierney came home after a narrow escape. Moreover, she found all her family had done their part to oppose The Grace Year. Maybe they would successfully overthrow this inhumane system.

The author described this distortive society in many details, the most impressive of which is when a girl was taken away in the streets by a poacher, no one went to help her. What's worse, although she had cried for help loudly and piercingly, the men in Garner County said that she hadn't resisted hard and exiled her sister as a punishment. This tragedy reminds me of a common but unreasonable phenomenon : blaming the victim, especially in sex-related crimes. The victim is often accused of inviting the attack due to their revealing clothing or inappropriate behavior, and is even considered that they get only what they deserve. In my opinion, how a person prefers to be dressed is his or her freedom, not to mention that the right to dress is guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Nevertheless, people tend to criticize others’ appearance recklessly with outdated social norms. It is this inappropriate thought and behavior that makes the criminal more unbridled, causes secondary trauma to the victim and discourages other victims from exposing the crime. People who blame the victim are probably another gang of perpetrators.

The setting of the story may seem absurd, but it reflects a similar situation in reality. As everyone in Garner County saw The Grace Year as a normal social system, strictly obeyed by women who suffered enormously, there are in fact many absurd social norms that bind women in the real world. For instance, women are required to wear specific clothing at work in Japan, and the practice of child brides in India isn’t uncommon even nowadays. While we were indoctrinated with such incorrect concepts from an early age, how many people could be as brave as Tierney in overthrowing the unfit system rather than keep these fallacious concepts and become the perpetrator of the next generation?

Recently, Afghanistan under the Taliban has become more like Garner County. Women are required to wear specific clothing(hijabs) and obey their male relatives(Mahram). In addition, some words and deeds, such as laughter and make-up, are banned. These provisions appear to be unreasonable and unacceptable to the vast majority of people. Nevertheless, there were still some women who, like the women in Garner County, accepted these human rights violations and took to the streets to show their support for the Taliban. From my point of view, "Tierney" in Afghanistan faces a more disadvantageous situation than Tierney in Garner County. They confront not only the current unreasonable system and women who don't recognize them, but the formidable Taliban regime and terrorist militants. In fact, I can see the hope for success in Tierney, but I am worried about the future of Afghan women since the women who can become Tierney were forced to hide around after being threatened by the Taliban. However, how can a bird which has experienced free flight endure being tied up in a cage? I expect Afghan women to fight for equality with men, instead of continuing to be an accessory to men. I also hope that other countries will give practical support to them rather than criticize the Taliban from abroad.

Every living being is equal so everyone should be treated fairly. The Grace Year exaggerates the absurd specifications in patriarchal society. The author showed us an over-ridiculous world, but actually, these provisions are happening somewhere in the real world. Everyone should stand up to become Tierney; otherwise our society is nothing but another Garner County!