Our Guys
by Bernard Lefkowitz
List Price: $15.00
Pages: 528
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 0375702695
Publisher: Vintage
The questions, discussion topics, and interview that follow are intended
to enhance your group's experience of reading Bernard Lefkowitz's Our
Guys. We hope they will provide you with a number of interesting angles
from which to approach this harrowing and deeply revealing story of the
violent undercurrents that exist within a "perfect" American suburb.
Glen Ridge, New Jersey: In March 1989, thirteen teenage boys lured a retarded girl into a basement
where four of them gang-raped her while several others looked on. The
boys were the most popular athletes in high school. And although rumors
of the rape began quickly circulating through the town, it was weeks before
anyone reported it to the police and years before the boys finally went
to trial.
Glen Ridge is an affluent, idyllic suburb, the kind of town that exemplifies the American Dream.
What went wrong in Paradise? Why did the town's supposedly responsible
adults--including teachers, coaches, parents, and law-enforcement officers--turn
a blind eye to the increasingly violent and aberrant behavior of Glen
Ridge's golden boys? In Our Guys, noted author and journalist Bernard
Lefkowitz draws on hundreds of interviews with the case's key players
and observers to create a deeply disturbing portrait of an all-American
town and the value system that shapes its children's characters. The expertly
told story of the rape and the subsequent trial makes a compelling national
drama of conscience and morality, charged with a significance that reaches
far beyond one town and its criminal justice system. A New York Times
Notable Book of the Year, a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the
Year, a Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist, and an Edgar Award
Finalist, Our Guys raises vital questions about our values, our
law, and our moral standards.
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1. One review of Our Guys
described the priorities of the community of Glen Ridge as "large, protected
homes, easy access to an endless array of consumer goods, and team sports,
with education far down the line, except as a means of obtaining the
first three" (New York Times Book Review). Is this a fair assessment?
2. How do the jocks classify
the girls in their high school class, and what, if anything, do these
classifications tell us about the roles of girls and women in this community?
Why do the girls put up with the treatment the jocks hand out, even
agreeing to call themselves "pigs" to gain admission to jock parties
[p. 203]?
3. "The ruling clique of teenagers
adhered to a code of behavior that mimicked, distorted and exaggerated
the values of the adult world around them" [p. 493]. Does this square
with what you have read about the parents of the perpetrators? Does
it conform with what you read about the teachers, coaches, and others
whose job it is to deal with the youth of Glen Ridge? How does this
compare with what is going on in your own community?
4. Lefkowitz believes that
the social hierarchy and the social conditioning in Glen Ridge reflects
the larger American culture. Do you agree with him? How do the society
and the values of Glen Ridge resemble, or differ from, other communities
and schools with which you are familiar? Do you agree with Lefkowitz's
implication that ours is an essentially unequal culture, where males
get more breaks than women do?
5. "Of all the boys charged
with sexually assaulting Leslie Faber, only Bryant Grober had sisters.
The others grew up in families where males were the dominant personalities"
[p. 68]. Also, Lefkowitz notes, there were no women in high positions
in Glen Ridge High School. What effect might the lack of association
between boys and girls have had upon these boys? Do you believe that
it is the school's responsibility to ensure that more women have important,
responsible, and visible positions within its hierarchy?
6. "Achievement was honored
and respected almost to the point of pathology," said the minister of
Glen Ridge Congregational Church, "whether it was the achievements of
high school athletes or the achievements of corporate world conquerors"
[p. 130]. "Compassion for the weak," adds Lefkowitz, "wasn't part of
the curriculum." Are these traits--the worship of success and a lack
of concern for the weak--characteristic of our culture as a whole? Are
our major institutions, like the educational system and the press, making
any attempt to counterbalance such ideas?
7. In Chapter 16, why did the
kids get away with trashing Mary Ryan's house? Why was no legal action
taken by the Ryans? Do you think that this sort of incident occurs,
and gets covered up, in other towns or cities? What would have happened
to these boys if they had been less affluent--or if they had not been
white?
8. According to a national
survey in 1993, 81 percent of female public school students said they
had been sexually harassed in school; only 7 percent of those harassed
told a teacher about it [p. 92]. Why do you think so few girls inform
their teachers? Are they afraid of retaliation or of publicity? Do you
believe that such fears are justified? What effect might the experiences
of Leslie Faber or that of the Central Park jogger (whose story was
in the news for months) at the hands of lawyers and media have on a
woman who is wondering whether to report a rape?
9. "The guys prized their intimacy
with each other far above what could be achieved with a girl" [p. 146].
What does sex represent for the boys in this jock culture? Why is it
a passive experience--something "done to them, not something they actively
participated in" [p. 148]? Do you think that Querques's tactics in painting
Leslie as a sluttish Lolita were legitimate--that he was simply doing
the best he could to acquit his clients? Or do you find his behavior
despicable? Why is it legally acceptable to make the sexual history
of the victim public but not to reveal that of the suspect? How might
the legal system try rape suspects without putting the victim on trial
too?
10. In what ways do you feel
that Glen Ridge High School failed its students--both the jocks, who
were growing increasingly delinquent, and their victims? How did it
fail the other students: the "Giggers," for example, and those who were,
or might have been, genuinely interested in their academic subjects?
Do you see the schools in your community behaving similarly?
11. Do you agree with the final
decision of the jury? That is, "was what the boys did a crime--or was
it just a crummy thing to do" [p. 35]? What is your reaction to the
judge's sentencing of the boys? What messages did the verdict and the
sentencing convey to the boys, the town of Glen Ridge, and to those
who took an interest in this case?
12. Are all young males
aggressive, potentially dangerous, when they are part of a group? Are
athletes, by nature or training, violent and dangerous?
13. Bernard Lefkowitz has said,
"I think that when we try to respond to men who commit crimes when they're
in their twenties and thirties, we're way too late. Their values have
been shaped when they were twelve,thirteen, and fourteen years old"
(Salon magazine, August 1997). If this is the case, what might
we do as a society to change the values these boys are acquiring? How
might such change be effected?
14. One of the questions posed
by this book is: "Is it worth ruining so many lives to punish guys who
got carried away for an hour?" [p. 284]. What is your own answer? If
it is "no," do you believe that such leniency should apply in all similar
cases?
15. Lefkowitz implies that there
are two justice systems in America: one for the affluent, and one for
everyone else. Does this seem a fair assessment of the situation? What
other prominent legal cases in recent years might illustrate your point?
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