Tess Gunty speaks of “entrapment” when she discusses The Rabbit Hutch? In what senses are characters in Gunty’s novel entrapped?

Tess Gunty’s The Rabbit Hutch follows Blandine and others through an entire week in Vacca Vale Indiana before her attack.  Throughout the novel, the theme of entrapment is heavily apparent in all characters, especially Blandine.  I believe she is entrapped within the town physically, of her own free will, and her mind entraps her to the town and those inside it.

Blandine constantly speaks out about her distaste of the urbanization project of Vacca Vale and thinks it’s not the proper way to save her city, saying “I will never, ever leave Vacca Vale … we’re the only ones who can save it” (Gunty 217 & 219).  Her declaration of devotion to Vacca Vale shows how she stays within the decrepit town by choice, and she aims to save it; however, she doesn’t put any plans into action to actually do something about it.  Others criticize her for this, and she openly admits “I’m not smart enough to lead a revolution, okay?  I’m very aware of that.  All I know is that we fucking need one”, and this quote highlights how in a way her idea of the town traps her (325).  She doesn’t do anything to save the old spirits of the town she calls home, either because she believes she can't or she deep down doesn’t want to do anything about it, which explains how she tries to cling to something and refuse a fresh start because nothing will ever compare to Vacca Vale.  She needs a clean slate somewhere else, to get away from all the demons plaguing her, but she refuses to accept this because she confines herself physically and emotionally to the safety of what she has always known.  There is an issue in this because Vacca Vale is changing and nothing seems to stop their plans, so how can she stay in the comfort of what has always been there when that is changing?  Bottom line, I believe she is scared to leave because in odd ways she has a sense of community there.  Despite her not having a family, she has her foster parents, roommates, and old school relationships, which no matter how toxic they are, bind her to this place because she rather be surrounded by unhealthy things she knows rather than the healthy unknown.

Adding on to why the unhealthy relationships bind her to this place, the love she once felt toward James allowed her to engrain her mind into the thought of him which was almost impossible to break from.  Blandine admits she was blinded by what she thought was love and “I was too distracted by all my other collapsing illusions to properly demonize you.  But not anymore” (323/24).  Even after declaring him a criminal and saying over and over again how much she hated him, she still longed for his touch and couldn’t seem to leave his car.  She hits him for what he did to her, yet she still collapses into his arms because “her brain and her heart are not calibrated to the same moral system” and beyond that, part of her is still in love with the idea of him rather than the reality (330).  Her confusion illustrates how emotions, especially love, can trap someone in the strangest ways and make the body a slave to the mind.  Blandine remains attached to James no matter how hard she tries to leave him behind, further highlighting how her mind has entrapped her to someone she despises and to the town he resides in because some part of her cannot leave either.  This juxtaposition between loving and hating someone and something shows how her mind has clung onto an idea of safety and truth that doesn’t exist and never really did, entrapping her into an idealized world she can’t escape.