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 Mike Tyson." Harpers Magazine. 1997. http://jco.usfca.edu/tyson.html

Oates, Joyce….

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….

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 that Basil….

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 Oates….

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….

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 these….

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 through….

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" in its tone….

Date with Death in O’Connor and Oates Flannery O'Connor in "A Good Man is Hard to Find" discusses the outcome and truth about life, death and religion. When I first read the story, I didn’t think much of it and was just surprised how it ended with the family being murdered. The story begins with the illustration of the family's relationship towards one another, their lack of respect for one another. The grandmother is portrayed as a manipulative and self-centered person. For example, the grandmother’s warning about the Misfit was not to help the family but to manipulate the family into doing what she wanted. She did not want to go to Florida: she wanted to go see her ancestral home somewhere else. She also brought the cat along, even though she was told not to—but it is understandable: the cat seems to be the only thing she cares about outside….

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. Because she did….

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" (p.….

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….

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 to start with….

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 her….

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….