Joyce Carol Oates Essays (Examples)

Joyce Carol Oates A Stylistic

Although one could write a gritty, objective tale about either boxing or farm workers, and although Joyce could have interviewed either the authors she critiques or the boxers she chronicles, her concerns are now more of a metaphysical nature, and her prose reflects this -- Joyce is now less a writer in the field of contemporary journalist, than a cultural critic who considers her subjectivity a strength rather than a weakness.

orks Cited

Joyce Carol Oates." About. Com. 2005

http://www.answers.com/topic/joyce-carol-oates

Oates, Joyce Carol. "Is this the Promised End?" Originally Published in Journal of Aesthetics and Critical Theory. Reprinted in Contraries. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1981.

Oates, Joyce Carol. "Beyond Glory: The Good Fight." Review of Beyond Glory. October 11, 2005. New York Times Book Review.

Oates, Joyce Carol. Garden of Earthly Delights. New York: Ecco: 1967.

Oates, Joyce Carol. On Boxing. New York: Ecco Press, 1994.

Oates, Joyce Carol. "On…… [Read More]

Joyce Carol Oates I the

The system, the attorneys and the jury seem to be too biased in their assessment of the case, obviously swerving from the real purpose that any trial should have, that is, reaching justice. Racism which is inherently present even in modern, present-day society is even a part of the system of justice, as Oates observes. Instead of a fair outcome, the result of the trial is the huge confusion that accompanies the way in which the facts are presented for the jury and the public. Thus, Oates feels that playing the role of a jury member in a trial can be at most a very frustrating experience that can make one lose the faith in humanity and its values. Also, the author underlines the importance of the concept of justice and the way in which it loses meaning in the system. There is also a slight religious undertone attached to…… [Read More]

Joyce Carol Oates Sees The Picture of

Joyce Carol Oates sees "The Picture of Dorian Gray" as a revelation as to another side of Wilde; one that questioned the aestheticism professed by Lord Henry and other characters in the novel.

She claims that the book evokes Faust and the devil, as the portrait of Dorian Gray was surely evil and the aesthetic beauty of Dorian corrupted by demonic influence. In this light, A Picture of Dorian Gray is a cautionary tale and its protagonist a tragic hero that is eventually overcome by his own carnal lusts. Oates focuses on the homoerotic undertones of the book and that by invoking Dorian's beauty, Basil sewed the seeds of his own fate.

What she fails to recognize in the book, however, is the role of pederasty and how Basil is in effect a tragic hero, as is Humbert in Nabakov's Lolita. A careful read of Wilde's work will show us…… [Read More]

Joyce Carol Oates and the Traits of

Joyce Carol Oates and the Traits of the Mid-Twentieth Century riter

Just as society changes over time, writing changes over time. riters today rarely write in the same forms as Shakespeare once did. As well as style, the subjects of writing change, with this expected since society has changed over time. For example, it is hardly likely that Shakespeare would have written about the issue of feminism. Even looking at writing on a shorter time scale of a century, it can be seen that writing styles and themes change. These changes are so apparent that there are various traits associated with twentieth century writing and other traits associated with writing in the second half of the twentieth century. To illustrate how these traits appear in literature, the work of one of the most celebrated American writers of the twentieth century will be discussed. This writer is Joyce Carol Oates, with…… [Read More]

Joyce Carol Oates Story Where Are You

Joyce Carol Oates story, Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? The writer of this paper explores why society sometimes punishes those who are different using the story as an example.

Society has always treated people who are differently with a less welcome attitude than those who are like everybody else. It has held true in almost every life setting from school classrooms, to work environments to social gatherings. It has been this way since the beginning of history and is illustrated in many venues including literature. One of the classic examples of different people being punished for their differences can be found in the works of Joyce Carol Oates, "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been." Connie was not like her sister and the differences displeased many around her including her own mother. Her mother often spoke to her with disdain and took many opportunities to remind…… [Read More]

Worried About You by Joyce Carol Oates

Worried about You," by Joyce Carol Oates. Specifically, it will summarize the story, and the characters in the story. "We Were Worried about You" is a story of family, but it is also a story of what people ignore in their lives, and how it affects them.

WE WERE WORRIED AOUT YOU

The characters in Oates short story are seemingly a normal and happy middle class family. They identify with their shiny new cars, the father works hard, and they all attend church on Sundays. They could be any family anywhere in America. Even more so, they ignore those less fortunate on the side of the road, and here they epitomize something deeper, the way American society's upper classes ignore the poverty and hunger of those less fortunate. These are not cruel or unfeeling people, but they are afraid of what they do not know, and so, they pass by…… [Read More]

Mulvaneys the Narrator of Joyce Carol Oates'

Mulvaneys

The narrator of Joyce Carol Oates' novel e ere the Mulvaneys is youngest son Judd. In this particular passage from near the end of the novel, Judd Mulvaney is contemplating his life and the truth of human nature and human existence. In order to convey the importance of Judd's discovery, Oates utilizes certain literary devises which are intended to inform the reader and to manipulate how that reader sees the narrative. The most important literary techniques used in this passage are first person narration, epiphany, and bildungsroman in order to tell the story of how Judd Mulvaney changed from an innocent young boy into a jaded and unfortunately knowledgeable young man.

A first person narrator is a literary technique which authors use to add voracity and honesty to the events that they write about. Using the first person puts the reader into the position where they witness the events…… [Read More]

Classic Joyce Carol Oates Story

here Are You Going, here Have You Been?

The characters in Oates' story are so brilliantly crafted that critics and scholars have had created enormous volume of literature about those characters. Some critics have suggested that Arnold is the devil and that Connie, the protagonist, is the devil's target. And this certainly can be justified by looking closely at the descriptive elements surrounding Oates' narrative descriptions. Thesis: Oates has crafted a story that embraces dramatically juxtaposed characters, not just to set the good against the bad, but to paint a bigger picture that allows the reader to identify with any number of compellingly familiar traits and motives in the characters. Those characters that Oates presents also mirror other characters in literature, like Cinderella and the devil.

Setting the Stage for "here Are You Going, here Have You Been?"

Critic Brian ilkie asserts that Joyce Carol Oates' fiction is so "various"…… [Read More]

The ChaConnie in Where Are You Going Where Have You Been

Comparing and Contrasting Fiction and Real Life:
The Character of Connie in “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”
by Joyce Carol Oates
The fate of the character of Connie in Joyce Carol Oates has always seemed particularly poignant to me, because she reminds me of one of my close friends from high school. Connie is a beautiful young woman who, for a brief period in her life, feels powerful because of the beauty she has and the hold it seems to give her over other people. She comes across as sexually aware and self-confident. But she looks much older than she is and when she attracts the attention of the wrong sort of man, it is implied that she comes to a tragic end at the conclusion of the story. Fortunately, my friend never met an Arnold Friend-style character. But she did often attract attention from older men.…… [Read More]

Jco going Where Been Joyce Carol

As Connie grows more frightened of Arnold's escalating threats, she eventually allows her own imagination to run wild, to the point where she can neither think clearly anymore, nor even manage to use her own telephone to call the police.

The fright-inspiring actions of the fearsome Arnold, are foreshadowed early on, when he warns Connie, the night before, after first noticing her outside a drive-in restaurant: "Gonna get you, baby" (p. 2279). From then on, Arnold's quest to "get" Connie feels, to Connie and the reader, in its dangerous intensity, much like the predatory evilness of malevolent fairy tale characters, e.g., the ig ad Wolf, or the evil stepmothers (and/or stepsisters) that fix on Snow White, Sleeping eauty, Cinderella, and other innocent young female characters as prey.

The shaggy-haired man who drives "a jalopy painted gold" (p. 2279) first notices Connie at a "drive-in restaurant where older kids hung out"…… [Read More]

Anton Chekov vs Joyce Carol

Despite these differences, there are also many similarities between the two. The plot similarities are obvious, including the fact that both have affairs beginning and continuing in similar circumstances. Both have husbands that they do not wish to leave, partly out of habit and partly out of pity. They compartmentalize their lives and are able to think of themselves as somehow different people when with their husbands and with their lovers. In this, as in their inability to choose a partner, to overcome their fear and guilt and shame, or to find something in their lives that makes them truly happy, both of these Annas are very ineffectual and weak. In both cases there is a sense of guilt and shame associated with the affair, even though in the Russian Anna's case this sense of shame is far greater than in the modern Anna's. She obsesses constantly on her shame…… [Read More]

Oates Arnold Friend Is a Stalker There

Oates

Arnold Friend is a Stalker

There are many nebulous aspects to Joyce Carol Oates short story, "here Are You Going, here Have You Been," for example, the origins of Connie's troubled relationship with her mother (is it strictly a jealousy thing?), the peculiarity of Arnold Friend's last name (what kind of friend is he?), the relevance of those secret numbers that Arnold Friend rattles off ("33, 19, 17") or even why the story is dedicated to Bob Dylan (is 'Bobby King' a reference to Dylan?), but one aspect of the story that is certainly clear is that Arnold Friend is a stalker, a predatory malcontent. And it is the purpose of this essay to conclusively demonstrate that Arnold Friend is a prototypical stalker by using three rubrics -- a psychological rubric, a literary comparative rubric, and a public opinion rubric - for evaluating his predatory behaviors.

Perhaps, it's best…… [Read More]

Oates 'Where Are You Going'

For example within the poem this group of speakers "left school" (line 2) it is implied, because they had more "adult' things to do, like "Lurk late" (line 3), play pool, and hang out drinking through the night. Moreover, in this same tone these speakers just as nonchalantly predict (that as a result of their past and present actions combined) they will also "die soon" (line 8). It is as if death itself is no less casual than playing a game of pool together.

But in fact the lifestyle decisions they have made are the opposite of the adult self-discipline and willingness to delay gratification it takes to stay in school instead of drop out, study instead of stay out with friends all night, and be responsible instead of reckless. Just as Joyce carol Oates's protagonist Connie does not take seriously that the wolfish Arnold might indeed come over to…… [Read More]

Chopin and Oates An Awakening

The wildly prolific Joyce Carol Oates also delves into the role of modern women in her fiction writing, although a quick review of her works spanning the course of the 20th and 21st centuries, suggests it is more difficult to draw as direct a connection between Oates' major works and biography than it is with Chopin. However, like Mrs. Mallard of "The Story of an Hour" briefly delights in a fantasy coming to life, only to find her hopes dashed when the promise of freedom is taken away, the heroine Connie of "here are you going, where have you been," finds her fantasy of being seductive and more beautiful than her conventional mother and sister to be far different than she realizes in reality. In Oates, much more explicitly than in Chopin, the trap of femininity 'used' as a vehicle of liberation for the teenage Connie becomes a lie, as…… [Read More]

Where Are You Going Where Have You

here Are You Going, here Have You Been? A failure to communicate

The heroine of Joyce Carol Oates "here Are You Going, here Have You Been?" is a young woman who has only just begun to understand the power of her sexuality. Like so many young girls, fifteen-year-old Connie is simultaneously an adult and a teenager: "Everything about her had two sides to it, one for home and one for anywhere that was not home: her walk, which could be childlike and bobbing, or languid enough to make anyone think she was hearing music in her head; her mouth, which was pale and smirking most of the time, but bright and pink on these evenings out; her laugh, which was cynical and drawling at home" (Oates 1968). Connie knows how to flirt with older boys but she is unaware of the potential consequences of doing so. Tragically, at the end…… [Read More]

Where Are You Going This Assignment Did

Where Are You Going

this assignment did not pass the instructors critique-her comments below: anthony, Thank sharing group project contributions. Your team a good job discussing text managing responsibilities group tasks group discussion board / group live chat,

Suburban tragedy: The character of Connie in Joyce Carol Oates'

"Where are you going, where have you been?"

In her short story "Where are you going, where have you been?" Joyce Carol Oates describes the fate of a young, highly provocative girl named Connie. Connie is beautiful and only just emerging into a state of fully sexualized adolescence. "She was fifteen and she had a quick, nervous giggling habit of craning her neck to glance into mirrors or checking other people's faces to make sure her own was all right" (Oates 1966). Connie looks for approval from boys, but has a confident, cool air at home, as she easily manipulates her parents…… [Read More]

Where Are You Going Where

The absence of religious lifestyle in the family is an emphasis to the centrality of religion in the life of adolescents and is brought out as the possible wedge that may be there between evil and good. Here, Arnold Fiend could be seen as the embodiment of the devil in his boots that looked odd giving an evil angle and a hidden identity giving him a satanic look. The continued presence of rock and roll music in the entire story also embodies the rebellion against the societal norms. This is from the fact that such music in the 1960s was used as a sign of liberty and freedom from societal dictates and rules. This was the rebellion that most adolescents like Connie got into hence predisposing themselves to dangers that cost them their lives.

eference

Little M., (2013). Popular Culture After World War II. etrieved April 18, 2012 from http://www.powayusd.com/teachers/lolps/American%20History/Standards/11_8/11.8.8%20Popular%20Culture%20After%20WW%20II.pdf… [Read More]

Generational Conflict and Adult Decision-Making

Distinctly from John Updike's teenage character Sammy in his short story "A&P," who realizes he has just become an adult; Connie as suddenly realizes she feels like a kid again. Now she wishes the family she usually hates having around could protect her. The actions of the fearsome Arnold, are foreshadowed early on, when he warns Connie, the night before, after first noticing her outside a drive-in restaurant: "Gonna get you, baby" (paragraph 7). From then on, Arnold's quest to "get" Connie feels, to Connie and the reader, in its dangerous intensity, much like the predatory evilness of malevolent fairy tale characters, e.g., the Big Bad olf, or the evil stepmothers (and/or stepsisters) that fix on Snow hite, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, and other innocent young female characters as prey. And Connie at the end of "here Are You Going, here Have You Been" wishes, like Little Red Riding Hood, Snow…… [Read More]

Women Are Confined in Society as Depicted

women are confined in society as depicted in the stories by Steinback, Joyce and Oates.

Stories set in the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century often depict women as being confined to the norms of society even while they struggle to be free. Authors of literary works may they be short or long stories have often presented these women as being frustrated with the status imposed upon them and show the problems they face in a patriarchal society. In John Steinback's Chrysanthemums for instance, the female character Elisa Allen has been portrayed as "a strong, capable woman kept from personal, social, and sexual fulfillment by the prevailing conception of a woman's role in a world dominated by men" (Steinback, 306). Her appearance, manner and speech all suggest that she is a woman frustrated with the male dominated world. Her husband forever reminds Elisa that she…… [Read More]

Where Are You Going Where Have Been

here Are You Going, here Have Been?

Joyce Carol Oates's short story "here Are You Going, here Have You Been?" was first published in the literary journal Epoch in 1966. The story is about beginnings and the rites of passage. This work is an illustration of a coming of age story, also known as an initiation story. In such stories, the protagonist undergoes an important rite of passage, transformation, an experience of transition, usually from childhood to adulthood, or from innocence to experience. The story focuses on that turning point, that trial, or the passage from one state to the other.

The story is about a fifteen-year-old girl named Connie, a pretty girl who is in the middle of a rebellious adolescence. She alienates herself from her family, preferring to spend her time with her friends at the local restaurant looking for boys. She enjoys the popular music of the…… [Read More]

Fiction With Documentation

Fiction with Documentation

"here are you going, here have you been

hen asked this question, teenage girls like Connie -- past and present -- are faced with few options

Perhaps one of the great hallmarks of a great work of fiction is its ability to appear to have been written for the age during which it is being read, regardless of how far back in time it was written. In other words, Joyce Carol Oates' story might strike a contemporary adolescent or young adult reader as something timeless. Or rather, although it was written during the 1960's, it seems as if it is quintessentially about today's average fifteen-year-old teenage girl. Connie seems to be a perfect Britney Spears wanna-be, disdaining her slightly tubby older sister, refusing to listen to her mother, and glutting herself at the mall in acts conspicuous consumption, and conspicuous, revealing outfits.

Yet, incongruously to the modern…… [Read More]

Watching the Parents A Brace of Short

atching the Parents?

A brace of short stories by two of the most skilled American short story writers of the 20th century cast the family in an eerie and distressing light. For the families in these two stories are not the comforting supportive group gathered around the homely hearth giving succor to each other in bad times and sharing the joy of good times. These are families in which battle lines have been drawn and in which there is the potential for terrible harm to be done. These are families whose deadliness is most likely to be turned on each other.

In Joyce Carol Oates's story "here are you going, here have you been?," one of the daughters of a family is recognized by both herself and others as The Beauty. Connie -- not in any way a constant girl -- is 15 and is the beauty that her mother…… [Read More]

BIM in We Were Worried

..Dad was an impatient man, any display of weakness made him squirm. Mom smiled at his words of criticism but rarely contradicted, not quick or bold enough, to match wits with him" (77).

Another symbolic illustration of suppression within Oates' family in "We were" is the apparent conflict that Bim experiences for his father. He tries to suppress both love and hate for his father, for expressing love would mean "weakness" on Bim's part, not to mention his fear of being rejected when he shows his love for his father. Bim's hate is also suppressed mainly for fear of retribution from his father. It is evident that as a child, Bim is limited to express his feelings -- thus, suppression operates as his way of not acknowledging and hiding the existence of feelings of love and hate, which, at the same time, protects him from feelings of hurt and embarrassment.…… [Read More]

Adult Different Views of Adulthood

At te climax of the story, the action breaks down somewhat and it is difficult to understand exactly what happens; though told in the third person, the story takes place from the girl's perspective, and she is herself highly confused by both her sexual response and her intense fear by the end of her encounter with the strange man. Still, it is clear that she ends up leaving the house with him, and her stepping out of the door marks the end of the story. Controlled by her sexuality -- represented as the strange spell that the man seems to have cast over her -- more than her fear, the protagonist ultimately steps away from the safe world of her childhood into the unknown but already guessed-at dangers that await her in the company of men.

Parallel Paths, Different Directions

There are some significant similarities as well as some important…… [Read More]

Common Theme Found in Three Stories

killer and his victim has been one of the most enduring topics throughout horror and suspense fiction, and it is this relationship which ties together three ostensibly distinct stories: Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man is Hard to Find," Joyce Carol Oates' "here Are You Going, here Have You Been," and Edgar Allen Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado." In each case, the majority of the story consists of the killer talking to his victim(s), some of whom are unaware of their fate at the beginning of the conversation, but who gradually come to realize the killer's true intention. The relationship which develops between killer and victim (however brief) in each story reveals something about how killers are treated by society, as people, and within society, as characters and archetypes. Considering how each of these stories intersect and diverge in their treatment of the relationship between killer and victim will serve to…… [Read More]

Lady With the Dog by

Chekhov likened his characters to a child who is just starting to understanding a new concept and meaning of love, leading him to further evaluate himself not just as a lover to Anna, but as a man and individual as he appears to Anna and other people:

He had two lives: one, open, seen and known by all who cared to know…and another life running its course in secret… everything that was essential, of interest and value to him…was hidden from other people; and all that was false in him…all that was open.

While Gurov admitted and acknowledged the hypocritical life he led by carrying on a love affair with Anna while still living with his wife, Anna remained confused and uncertain about herself and her lover in Oates' redevelopment of Chekhov's original short story. Created to complete the missing information on events surrounding Anna and her lover's affair in…… [Read More]

Nativity in the Short Story the Girl With the Blackened Eye

Girl ith the Blackened Eye

Blaming the victim, blaming the self:

"the Girl ith the Blackened Eye" by Joyce Carol Oates

hy do women stay with men who abuse them? This question has been asked time and time again, of celebrities as well as ordinary people. In her story "The Girl ith the Blackened Eye," author Joyce Carol Oates sees low female self-esteem as one of the reasons women are abused and often do not actively resist their abuse. Society implicitly assumes that a woman with an abusive man 'deserves what she gets' and this perception creates an almost physical paralysis on the part of the girl of the title. A woman's spirit as well as her body is beaten down by cultural assumptions of how women should behave. The girl is a victim even before she becomes a victim.

In the story "The Girl ith the Blackened Eye," the…… [Read More]

Interpreting Theme

Manipulation is the primary theme of Joyce Carol Oates' short story, "here are You Going, here Have You Been?" Through the careful development of her characters, Oates presents us with details that enhance a tale of violent manipulation thrust upon an innocent girl. This paper will examine Oates' technique and how it contributes to the overall effect of the story.

Oates spends a considerable amount of time describing Connie. Our first indication that this might be a tale of terror is the first sentence, which tells us that her first name was Connie instead of is Connie. Connie is a typical young teenager, filled with typical emotions. For instance, just as every teenager, Connie does not always get along with her mother. e are told that sometimes Connie's mother would pick at her "until Connie wished her mother was dead and she herself was dead and it was all over"…… [Read More]

Teenagers and Conflict a Review

Teenagers in Conflict ith Their Environment

At the time of the stories

Teenagers are often in conflict with their environment. hat some call the "rebellious" years are at times just periods in a person's life where he or she may feel confused, lost, and alone. Three stories by Oates, Boyle, and Gilman highlight the lives of teenagers and their conflicts within their worlds. Each character will show how teenagers may act; the paths they choose along with the reasons.

HERE ARE YOU GOING, HERE HAVE YOU BEEN by Joyce Carol Oates is a novel that describes the life of a teenage girl named Connie. Connie is one of the main characters and the protagonist of the story. Oates paints her as a beautiful and self-absorbed 15-year-old who argues with her mom. Although her mother was once beautiful like Connie, she has aged. Her sister, older and more homely, provides a…… [Read More]

Cynicism vs Idealism in Antony

This godlessness might initially be viewed as being cynical. However, when one looks at the social and political climate of Shakespeare's time, and the reality that England was just passing through a conversion from Catholicism to the Anglican church, driven by Henry VIII's desire to divorce and remarry, it might not be accurate to label godlessness in the play as cynical. Perhaps that is the view that Shakespeare is suggesting is idyllic, given the turmoil that organized religion had helped create in his country in recent history. This lack of a clear-cut explanation of the godlessness in the play, and of the playful way in which Cleopatra obliterates any claim Antony might actually have to self-divinity, shows how cynicism and idealism are caught in this cycle.

Nowhere in the play is the cycle of cynicism and idealism more dramatically showcased than in the play's final scenes. Caesar has conquered Egypt…… [Read More]

Personalities and Motivations of Murderers

Nonetheless, Bill never hurts other people simply because he thinks that it is irrational to hurt others. He thinks that any rational person would be like him and not hurt other people. Does Bill really understand that hurting others is morally wrong? (Nichols, 2002, p. 285)."

This presents some interesting directions of thought. However, it is time to go into the relationship between serial murderers and forensic psychology as it applies to the crime scene. Ted Bundy seemed very much aware that he was committing crimes against society, certainly crimes against his victims. Berkowitz, it was argued, was more psychotic, and for that reason perhaps less aware of his actions as crimes against society or individuals. Berkowitz was known to have started more than a thousand fires, and had a history of cruelty to animals; both manifestations of deeper emotional problems (Schlesinger, 2004, p. 328). This does not make any…… [Read More]

Descriptive Essay Examples to Get You Started

Melvilles Spouter Inn
Some of the best descriptive essayexamples can be found among the writings of the greatest authors. Consider a chapter in Moby-Dick by Herman Melville: every chapter of that book is like a mini-descriptive essay. Look at the way Melville uses description to create atmospheric effect in the first line of Chapter 3: The Spouter Inn from Moby-Dick: Entering that gable-ended Spouter-Inn, you found yourself in a wide, low, straggling entry with old-fashioned wainscots, reminding one of the bulwarks of some condemned old craft. Melville uses words like condemned to convey a sense of foreboding and doom, and the adjectives wide, low, straggling produce a claustrophobic effect on the readerone that pulls him in with force. Melville also uses consonance, assonance and alliteration to make the words flow more enjoyably and give the description a kind of musical quality. Go to any chapter in Moby-Dick and you will…… [Read More]

Agree With Much of What

" That harm is found when you look closely at the First Amendment's application and meaning, she continues. The person who argues that the First Amendment protection for pornography is justified, she suggests, is actually authorizing males and the establishment of laws to have power over sexuality, and as a result, to basically allow a woman's sexuality to be manipulated and abused.

The abuses that MacKinnon talks about are "unspeakable abuses...the rape, the battery, the sexual harassment, the prostitution and the sexual abuse of children"; only in pornography is "it called something else," she continues. "Sex, sex, sex, sex and sex," respectively. In other words she is angry that rape and battery are just referred to as "sexual" issues, and harassment and prostitution and the abuse of children fall under that broad category too.

This next section from MacKinnon is a bit harsh, and perhaps oversimplified, but she goes on…… [Read More]

Men and Women Would Better Serve Society

men and women would better serve society if they opted to shampoo my crotch (in lieu of putting out the drivel that they do). I'm serious. Nothing people say, write, or teach with respect to relationship advice, male-female communication, or the dynamics of socialization (with particular regard to language) is worth a damn. I'm serious. It's worthless. And if Gore Vidal was right when he said the three worst words in the English language were Joyce Carol Oates, then Deborah Frances Tannen has to be a close second. I'm serious about that too. Nothing Tannen writes has any relevance or usefulness. Case in point, her essay "But What Do You Mean?"

There are many reasons why "But What Do You Mean?" is a waste of 15 minutes (the approximate time it takes to read it), but for the sake of brevity, I'll only discuss three. The first reason is her…… [Read More]

Broke My Father's Heart and

Rather, the reader is only exposed to the short, choppy explanations of a first person narrator. Very little explanation is given as to why the events are happening or who the characters really are underneath their outward expressions and appearances. This tends to add to the general confusion the narrator feels during the intensely scary situation. One moment the narrator was thinking about tailgating with friends, and the next he is on the floor after being hit by a bus. The level of description coincides with the overall tone of confusion. The events following the initial accident also tend to carry this sense of confusion, but the atmosphere is much faster paced. The hospital and the ensuing trouble the narrator faces is in a much more rapid and hectic atmosphere than the dull and dreary atmosphere seen in Butler's work.

Overall, it is clear that the two works may share…… [Read More]

Tone and Voice Life Can Be Very

Tone and Voice

Life can be very difficult and unexpected things can happen which change a person and their family forever. orks of literature have the ability to transform the perspective of the reader and to inform the reader about some of the least pleasant aspects of life. In the essays "hat Broke My Father's Heart" and "Patient" the authors Katy Butler and Rachel Riederer put the reader into a position where they understand what it feels like to be vulnerable. Each essay is about a person experiencing a traumatic period in their lives and having to deal with the trauma and how it affects them and the people that they love. In the first story, a young woman tells about her experiences with an ailing father and his caretaker wife. The second is about a young woman who finds herself in the hospital after suffering a horrible injury. Each…… [Read More]

Two Competing Book Selling Websites

biggest online book retailers based in the United States are Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com, although the latter retains a major retail store presence. The websites of these two retailers are similarly organized, and prices are comparable. The following list of books will illustrate that Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com offer similar discounts on their products. I Am Charlotte Simmons is a brand new release by author Tom olfe. Amazon.com states the list price as $28.95; their discounted price as $19.69. Also, the book is "eligible for free super saver shipping." The same book sells at BarnesandNoble.com for $20.26, less than a dollar more than the Amazon.com price, which is 32% below list. Similarly, Joyce Carol Oates' latest novel, The Falls, is priced 32% below publisher's list, at $18.33 by Amazon.com and is 30% below list at Barnes and Noble, at $18.86. The Plot Against America, a new novel by Philip Roth, is listed…… [Read More]

Extend the Lines if Necessary Without Being

extend the lines, if necessary, without being wordy.

Three specific instances of irony in "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been" are:

a) ____The title: no one ever asks Connie these questions.

b) ____Connie is the one preyed upon in this tale, but she invites in this demonic provocation.

c) Arnold Friend's remark about holding her so tight she won't try to get away because it will be impossible, is an ironic remark as it represents much of the symbolism at work throughout the story.

In "Young Goodman Brown," a) Brown represents ____The easily corruptible human.

b) the forest represents ____The practice of evil.

c) the peeling, cacophonous sounds represent ____Temptation

3. Explain the mother's attitude towards Emily in "I Stand Here Ironing"; what specific EVIDENCE supports your position? ____The mother's attitude towards Emily in the story is one of distance, rather than motherly attention. She regards Emily as…… [Read More]

John Cheever Is Perhaps One

. . "

"I don't recall having sold the house," Ned said, "and the girls are at home."

(Cheever)

In the narration Ned continues on his journey home. Once he is home it is revealed that his house is indeed empty and his wife and daughters are gone. This is just one example of the conflict that exist in this narration between was is reality and what is illusion.

In addition to this aspect of conflict in The Swimmer, there is also a great deal of conflict associated with Ned's ability to swim across the county. This conflict exist because Ned also drank strong alcoholic beverages throughout his journey. It would have been next to impossible for him to swim after he had consumed just a few of these drinks. This is an obvious conflict that would have hindered his journey but the author presents it as fact and not…… [Read More]

Good Man Is Hard to Find for

Good Man is Hard to Find

For the purposes of this essay, I chose Flannery O'Connor's short story "A Good Man is Hard to Find." "A Good Man is Had to Find" is an apt topic for research such as this, because the ambiguity of the story's position regarding a grandmother ultimately responsible for the death of her entire family leads to a wide variety of possible readings, each with its own adherents and defenders. Upon reading this story, I immediately questioned the grandmother's role in the story, and especially whether or not the story portrayed her in a positive or negative light, because although at points in the story she appears positive in contrast to the other characters, she is ultimately shown to be reactive, shortsighted, and altogether incapable of protecting either her family or herself. Using Google Scholar, I searched for academic essays and books discussing "A Good…… [Read More]

None Specific

Scar

James Alan McPherson is an African-American writer who uses racial issues to bring the reader into the universal notion of identity, self-discovery, and actualization. While there is racial unrest within his material, he sees literature as colorblind, with more general and human issues the primary focus as opposed to a specific racial point-of-view. For instance, in The Story of a Scar, a young woman is stabbed by her college boyfriend while he is in a rage of jealousy. While the characters are young African-Americans, the events depicted and the subsequent issues that surround the event are not engendered to one race or another -- but more of the idea that youth of all races struggle for acceptance and respectability through a variety of uphill battles, cultural and societal bias, and innate prejudice.

It seems that The Story of a Scar is more about how we as humans tend to…… [Read More]

Conflict Between Exterior and Interior Life With Characters in 3 Short Stories

Conflict Between Exterior and Interior Life

Kate Chopin's "The story of an Hour" offers a story behind a story. First it can be noted that this talks about Mr. And Mrs. Mallard. Mrs. Mallard received a news that her husband has just died. This prompted for a roller coaster of emotions to build inside her heart and mind.

First, she felt sadness. She was saddened by the fact that she is now alone and that her husband will no longer be with her. But the feeling of sadness did not stay for long in Mrs. Mallard's heart because she suddenly realized that she is now free. The death of her husband would mean that nobody will hurt her anymore. Because her husband is dead, nobody will discriminate her anymore. Nobody will make her feel that she is just a low or second class citizen. Nobody will prevent her from doing…… [Read More]