All Around The Town 48r3k

I. Summary: The story takes place in Ridgewood, New Jersey. It takes place from June 1974 to about September 1991. The novel focused on a girl named Laurie Kenyon, a twenty-one-yearold college student who was kidnapped and abused when she was four years old, and sexually and physically abused but she doesn't even know it She was abandoned by her kidnappers, Bic and Opal, two years later and suffered from amnesia and a traumatic shock during the time she lived with them. Her abductors threatened to kill her if she will tell about them and made her promise not to tell before they left. After being returned, she had a lot of rehabilitation and psychological treatment to deal with but her parents decided to not go through with it. Her parents are determined she was just kidnapped by a lovingly couple who never had the chance to have a child. After being returned to her home from a kidnapping incident, she has developed multiple personalities. She had four main altered personalities which were Leona, the woman in love with Professor Grant, Debbie, the baby, Kate, the strong leader of the bunch, and Lee, a nine year old boy who helped bring all the personalities together as one. They were all living inside of her that she never knew existed. Now she was twenty-one. After her parents have died from a car accident, she can't stop blaming herself for everything that went wrong in her life. They put their house up for sale and they had an open house for buyers to come look at it. A couple came in and was very interested in the house. It just turned out that it was Bic and Opal who had changed their names to Reverend Bobby and Carla Hawkins. And they had their own TV church service program every Sunday. Professor Allan Grant was married to a young woman who he never saw very much because of her job location. He was Laurie’s English Professor. His wife, Karen Grant, thought that her husband was having an affair with his student Laurie Kenyon because he was spending so much time with her. One night Professor Grant called his wife and told her that he wanted a divorce. That same night Laurie Kenyon went into one of her altered personalities and decided to go over to Professor Grant’s house to just talk. With that same night Professor Grant’s wife came home to also talk to her husband about the divorce. When she saw a woman in the house she went crazy and stabbed her husband to death. Laurie was so scared that she just sat there and when she finally came back to the personality of Laurie she had blood all over her and she was holding a knife. She was then accused of stabbing Allan Grant and was charged with murder. Although Laurie has no memory of killing him, her fingerprints are all over the crime scene, on the door, on the curtain, and on the knife used to stab him to death. Shocked and bewildered, Laurie is arraigned on a murder charge. Her sister attorney Sarah Kenyon takes up her defense in court, and along with psychiatrist Justin Donnelly and Brendan Moody. Sarah is determined to find out exactly what happened to her sister on those two years she was kidnapped. She also wants to find out if Laurie really did kill her Professor and if she was even capable of committing murder. She was about to be sent to jail until the secretary of Karen Grant, Betsy Lyon, brought some important evidence Karen Grant accidentally dropped at the crime scene. It was Karen’s Bracelet. The evidence was critical and changed the whole situation, Mrs. Grant was sent to jail where she belongs. Laurie’s abductors, Bic and Opal, were shot by Gregg Bennet, Laurie’s ex-boyfriend, when Bic was about to stab Laurie when he knew that she spitted out his identity being her abductors. Laurie gets the help she needed and eventually overcomes her personality disorders. III. Characters: A. Major: - Laurie Kenyon – She was a four year old girl in the beginning of the story who eventually grows up to be a twenty-one year old woman. She was kidnapped and abused when she was four years old, and was accused for stabbing her English Professor to death. She developed multiple personalities named: • •

Kate – She was a thirty-three year old woman, fairly close to Laurie’s age. She was created to be Laurie’s protector but call’s Laurie a wimp. Debbie – She was a four year old child, who wants to talk about what had happened to her on those 2 years she was away but was too frightened or maybe just doesn’t understand what happened.

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Leona – A pretty sexy lady who was crazy about Allan Grant and jealous of his wife. She was the one fantasizing about him and sending him crazy love letters. Lee – He was a nine year old boy whom itted on one of the names Laurie is forbidden to say. In the end, he was the one who helped bring all the personalities together as one.

Sarah Kenyon - She is Laurie's sister and helps Laurie deal with all her problems as best she can. Bic / Reverend Bobby Hawkins – The mastermind of Laurie’s kidnapping and Laurie’s abductor. A very domineering person towards Opal and Laurie. Opal/ Carla Hawkins – Bic’s wife and also Laurie’s abductor. She was ive and did whatever she was told. Dr. Justin Donnelly - He was the psychiatrist who helped Laurie with therapy and helped find the real person that was within her all along.

B. Minor: -

Professor Grant - He was married to a young woman who he never saw very much because of her job location. He was Laurie’s English Professor. Karen Grant – She was Professor Allan Grants Wife. The one who stabbed his widow to death because of jealousy. Betsy Lyons – Karen Grant’s Secretary. She was the one who brought important evidence that turned the case upside down. Gregg Bennet – Laurie’s Ex-boyfriend. He was the one killed Laurie’s abductors on an unexpected encounter. Sophie – The Kenyon’s trusted Housekeeper. She was a good friend to the Kenyon sisters. Thomasina Perkins – The cashier who spotted Laurie with her abductors on a restaurant in Harrisburg. John and Marie Kenyon – Sarah and Laurie’s Parent who died in a car accident. Dr. Iovino – The head of the Counseling Center where Laurie had her regular psychological treatments.

IV. A. Who among the characters you like most? Why? - I like the most Sarah Kenyon’s Character. She’s really determined that her sister is not capable of murdering her English professor. When Laurie is still away, she had a bargain with God, that if He will return Laurie to them, she promised that she would never leave her sister alone and will always take care of her. So when Laurie was accused of homicide, she doesn’t hesitate to take up her sister’s defense. She was also the one always accompanying Laurie to her counseling so she can revive her lost memories with her abductors. She is the one helping Laurie get over with her Multiple Personality disorder. And in the end, her hard works have been paid, that the real killer was put into jail. B. Who among the characters you like least? Why? - I really dislike Bic/ Reverend Bobby Hawkin’s personality. He used the name of God in vain and it seems that God always dropped by his house to have a daily chat with him. He always say’s that every people must put God first in their every activity, but he’s the one not doing it. It serves him right, being killed because he kidnap Laurie when he was four and sexually and physically abused her. He keeps on stalking Laurie because he’s still crazy about her. Even Sarah Kenyon is annoyed to him on always being around their house. He even threatened Laurie by putting a dead chicken head on her way to the parking lot. And it gives Laurie a really traumatic shock.

V. Enumerate 5 significant events. Chapter 1; pp. 3 – 5 -

When Laurie is alone wandering outside their house, while her mother is busy talking to their visitors, and Sarah was out on a birthday party, she is waving on the cars ing their house. She then thought it was parade, but it was a funeral on the way to the cemetery. Laurie hadn’t noticed a car where a woman was driving stop by their front house. Then the man sitting to her got out and picked her up. Before she knew she was being kidnapped, she was squeezed between them and too surprised to say anything.

Chapter 41-45; pp. 117-134 -

At first she taught she was dreaming again. But this time it was different, the knife wasn’t coming at her. She was holding it and moving it up and down. She then realizes that Professor Grant is lying in front of her dead. One of her alter personality helped him to get away but after that encounter, she was still accused of killing the Professor. She has no memory of killing him, but her fingerprints are all over the crime scene, on the door, on the curtain, and on the knife used to stab him to death. Laurie is arraigned on a murder charge.

Chapter 52; pp. 148-152 -

This is when Laurie’s psychiatrist knew about her alter personalities. While they’re talking about Allan Grant’s death, Laurie told Dr. Donnelly that they can’t kill because someone misreads a nasty situation. And that was when Dr. Donnelly is able to talk to Laurie’s altering personalities, Debbie, Kate, and Leona. He discovered that Debbie’s personality is that of a kid who has developed during Laurie’s Kidnapping incident. And Kate, another alter personality who was developed to protect Laurie. And Leona has the personality of a sexy Laurie who is in love and crazy about her English Professor.

Chapter 106-107 pp.311-321 -

It’ll be one week until Laurie will be sent to jail until the secretary of Karen Grant, Betsy Lyon, brought some important evidence Karen Grant accidentally dropped at the crime scene. It was Karen’s Bracelet. It slipped on her hand twice, the first incident is that he dropped it on her desk at her office and the second one is on the crime scene. It is when they found out that it is Karen Grant who killed Allan Grant out of jealousy when she saw Laurie’s bag at their house. And when the prosecutor is interrogating her, she first denied it, but when her guilt distressed her, she already spoke up of what really happened.

Chapter 111-117; pp. 327-341 - This was the time they discovered that the evangelist preacher and his wife are Laurie’s abductor when she was four. They found it out when a certain article at People’s magazine shows the picture of the couple when they were 15 years younger. They’re a bunch of rockers and they’re picture was taken on an old ranch with a chickens coop and a tree behind. It was the same picture that Laurie had been startled when seen. Laurie told Sarah that it was the place where she was brought, and the names of her abductors are Bic and Opal. It was written on the article that the couples name before they were an evangelist preacher was Bic and Opal. When Laurie gone to their house to check Sarah, there are the couples, and with that, she ed the threats the couple told her. Bic told her to kill herself as a payment for not marking her words. When Laurie is about to kill

herself, Sarah comes out. The knife was dropped and Bic picked it up. He was about to stab Laurie when Gregg Bennet came in and shot Bic that killed him. VI. Realistic Events •

This happened in real life, when a kid was kidnapped and he was molested by his or her kidnappers, he or she began to have trauma which then led him to develop Multiple Personality Disorder. Multiple personality disorder or Dissociative identity disorder is a psychiatric disorder characterized by having at least one "alter" personality that controls behavior. The "alters" are said to occur spontaneously and involuntarily, and function more or less independently of each other. The unity of consciousness, by which we identify our selves, is said to be absent in multiple personality disorder. Another symptom of this is significant amnesia which can't be explained by ordinary forgetfulness. This is what had happened on Laurie. After being kidnapped for 2 years, she had amnesia because of her abductors threat. And she developed this illness because different emotion she had felt.

VII. Events which do not happen in Real Life. -

I think in this novel all incidents may happen in real life. I think some already happened and is written of some history book. Different people have the same case as Laurie’s. Many had been noted to have this Illness because of childhood trauma. And all the other incidents in this novel seem realistic.

VIII. Given the opportunity, what parts of the novel will you changes? How will you change it? - In this novel, I want to change the part wherein they’re mother avoid Laurie to have Physiological counseling because she believe that people wanted a child took Laurie. I will change it by making Laurie’s mother allow her to have counseling so that she’ll revive earlier her lost memories. If I were Laurie’s mother I would let her have counseling so that she will not blame herself for being kidnapped 2 years ago. So she will recover her memories faster than expected.