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Juliet Takes A Breath Rhetorical Analysis

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Juliet Takes a Breath by Gabby Rivera is a captivating story that follows a young Latina lesbian’s journey of self-discovery and acceptance. While Juliet grows to find comfort in her cultural identity and sexual orientation, Harlowe contradicts Juliet's image during her book reading by reducing Juliet to a stereotype. Following this racially aggressive moment, Maxine, another person of color, calls out Juliet for walking away and not standing up for herself in Chapter 25. Through the intersectional identities and stress response of flight, I seek to examine how Rivera explores the notion of blame and ownership through Maxine’s conversation with Juliet about Harlowe’s reading. This question poses an interesting discourse based on the intersectionality …show more content…

Being reduced to someone from the ghetto who is poor and alone strips Juliet of her personhood. Her physical reaction, “a slight wheeze… gagging… my face was hard as a cement block…” and her running out of the building shows Juliet experiencing a flight stress response (Rivera, 250). When faced with a traumatic or stressful situation, there are many ways that a person may react, usually categorized by fight, flight, freeze, or fawn (Taylor, 2022). In this moment, with the numbness Juliet faces along with her desire to leave, her body is begging her to escape the danger. She leaves not just the building, but the state of Oregon as well, showing how Harlowe’s words made Juliet feel …show more content…

While Maxine may not have a responsibility to talk to Harlowe and right her wrongs, Juliet sees the lack of dialogue that Maxine “didn’t want to waste the energy” (Rivera, 303). If Maxine, a friend and partner of Harlowe wasn’t willing to talk to Harlowe in private, it is more difficult to blame Juliet for not speaking up in public. Furthermore, when Lupe says that Harlowe “doesn’t have the best track record with interns,” it makes me wonder why Maxine, who most likely knows this information, wants Juliet to be the one to defend herself to Harlowe (Rivera, 310). Although we receive no more information about these interns, it may demonstrate that Harlowe has a history of racist remarks and further leads me to believe that Maxine shouldn’t expect Juliet to stand up for

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