Long Shot

Ryan’s depiction of Iris’s relationship with Caleb provides an unfiltered look at a physically and emotionally abusive relationship dynamic to create awareness around domestic violence and disrupt stereotypical perspectives surrounding survivors’ experiences. In a content warning at the start of the source text, Ryan explains that she began writing Long Shot “in response to a young woman whose journey with domestic abuse was being played out in the media without much care or compassion” (i). With Iris’s story, Ryan examines the gendered power dynamics of her relationship with Caleb, conveying the ways that the abusive intimate relationship disempowers her and limits her freedom. Whereas contemporary culture often depicts women in such relationships as weak and passive, Ryan portrays Iris as a strong woman stuck in an impossible situation. Ryan takes care to position Iris’s decision to stay with Caleb even after he becomes violent as a symptom of her fear and need, rather than evidence of her inadequacy.

The way that Iris internally processes this dynamic and hesitates to discuss it with her closest confidantes conveys the oppressive nature of recurrent abuse. Iris’s sense that she’s trapped in her relationship with Caleb intensifies after she gives birth to Sarai, highlighting the complex and gendered challenges of having a child in the context of an abusive relationship. Iris grapples with the difficult reality of raising a baby as a single woman and also fears that Caleb will fight her for custody, threatening Sarai’s safety for the foreseeable future. Ryan uses Iris’s internal monologue to reveal her feeling of helplessness—she hates “feeling out of control in [her] own life, like an actor on someone else’s stage, [her] every move directed” (71). Caleb controls everything Iris does. He strips her of her autonomy, physically violates her, and emotionally manipulates her—actions that threaten to obscure her sense of self.

Caleb uses lies and coercion to strip Iris of a sense of agency within their relationship. Iris describes the lies he tells that keep her under his control as “a strait jacket, hampering [her], making [her] look like a madwoman” (145). For months, Iris feels incapable of owning the dire nature of Caleb’s behavior. She doesn’t know how to talk about Caleb’s abuse because of the damage it has done to her sense of self. Her fears of expressing the truth and asking for help are also symptoms of this abusive dynamic. Ryan’s narrative suggests that abusive relationship patterns strip the person being abused of their voice and agency. Caleb uses violence, manipulation, and assault to coerce Iris into silence, convincing her that she won’t be believed, that her pain won’t be taken seriously, and that Caleb won’t be punished.

Even after Iris leaves Caleb, the psychological and emotional effects of his abuse linger. Iris spends roughly a year hiding from Caleb in the bayou with Sarai. While this period helps her heal, she also struggles with sustained fear that Caleb will find her and physically endanger her and Sarai or that he will manipulate her story in the media. She hesitates to pursue new job and relationship opportunities because she’s reluctant to take risks and trust anyone around her. Caleb’s abuse makes her deeply wary of the world. It’s not until she starts to tell her story in a public arena that she begins to move through her trauma, claiming her voice and her experience and using her story to spread awareness.