Author: Dr. V. Vani Ayyaswariya

Abstract: Sexual violence is one of the most pervasive and devastating human rights violations, leaving deep psychological, emotional, and social scars on survivors. Rape narratives have long served as powerful tools to expose this violence, challenge societal denial, and give voice to those whose suffering is often hidden behind shame and fear. Rape has historically been shaped by narrow assumptions about gender, frequently portraying women as the sole victims and men solely as perpetrators. By examining rape narratives with particular attention to male victimization, it becomes possible to challenge these deeply rooted stereotypes and broaden our understanding of sexual violence. Male sexual trauma remains one of the most silenced subjects in literary representation due to entrenched norms of masculinity and institutional denial. This paper offers such a comparative analysis of two male victims: Cholly Breedlove in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye and Hassan in Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, examining how trauma, justice, recovery, and ethics are constructed in narratives of male rape. Through a trauma-theoretical and socio-ethical lens, the paper aims to bicker that both novels depict male rape as a socially produced violation rooted in racial and ethnic power structures. While Hassan’s trauma manifests as silence and moral endurance throughout the novel, Cholly’s trauma emerges as rage, destructive and self-destructive masculinity. The comparison reveals the absence of justice and recognition forecloses recovery and raises urgent ethical questions about witnessing, narrative authority, and responsibility in representing male survivor experiences.

Keywords: trauma studies, rape narratives, male rape, sexual coercion, masculinity, silence, ethics, Morrison, Hosseini

DOI: 10.22161/ijels.111.26