I would Love for somebody to write something anything about Rae so that I can understand her.......It is not unusual for girls who are sexually molested to act out sexually as they mature. The reasons for this are complicated and depend on the particular circumstances. In Rae's circumstances, she was molested repeatedly by her (step?) father, and her mother failed to protect Rae from this molestation. Whether this was because she didn't know it was happening, or chose to pretend it wasn't happening is not entirely clear. The dialog between Rae and her mother near the end is suggestive that her mother knew about it, and blamed Rae for it (something that is more common than it should be because of how some mother/daughter dynamics play out in American society). Quite likely the only affection Rae was ever shown was during the times she was being molested. Due to her feelings of vulnerability and abandonment, she sought to recreate those feelings of affection with anyone who would hold her, and this creates a cycle of letting people use her sexually because, for a time, it drives away the bad thoughts and feelings.You may notice that she mostly tended to have these feelings at night, when the cicadas were chirping, because that's when her molester would come to her and the noise evoked the memories of the molestation. That in turn pushed her to get rid of the memories, hence the drinking, drugs, and solicitation of sexual attention. All of these things where happening to Rae on a subconscious level because she was repressing the memories as much as she could, rather than dealing with the issue before her. No one in her life had tried to really help her work through it except for Ronnie, who, having issues of his own and being a young man, didn't really have the right tools to truly help her out the other side. It took someone completely outside the situation, with Rae's best interest at heart, to help her find the hook she needed to get through the times when the memories crowded without having to drown it out with booze, drugs, or sex. The chain around her waist came to represent the steady, reliable, and healthy affection she finally developed with Lazarus, and it gave her something solid to use to comfort herself and pull herself to the other side, so she could then help Ronnie with his issues.