I am reading a novel for pleasure, “Outlander” by Diana Gabaldon and came across this description of the impact of sexual abuse by the main male character.
“It’s..difficult to explain. It’s…it’s like…I think it’s a though everyone has a small place inside themselves, maybe, a private bit that they keep to themselves. It’s like a little fortress, where the most private part of you lives—maybe it’s your soul, maybe just that bit that makes you yourself and not anyone else.”…”You don’t show that bit of yourself to anyone, usually unless sometimes to someone that [you] love greatly.”…”Now, it’s like…like my own fortress has been blown up with gun powder—there’s nothing left of it but ashes and a smoking rooftree, and the little naked thing that lived there once is out in the open, squeaking and whimpering in fear, trying’ to hide itself under under a blade of grass or a bit o’ leaf, but—but not.. makin’ m-much of a job of it.” “I’ve been close death a few times,…,but I’ve never really wanted to die. This time I did.”
“[You] know the fortress I told of, the one inside me?…Well, I’ve a lean-to built, at least. And a roof to keep out the rain.”
