Joyce Carol Oates

Paper Summary:

The paper examines Joyce Carol Oates' short stories that deal with children or adolescents and unexpected threats and peril: 'Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been' and 'Heat'. The paper discusses Joyce Carol Oates' own experiences and her social and political viewpoints and concerns. The paper shows how her narrative style is authentic-sounding and fully convincing. The paper demonstrates how Oates is a feminist and how her feminist concerns are apparent within both stories. The paper also analyzes how Oates is both a nostalgic and a realistic writer.

From the Paper:

"For the narrator of "Heat" herself, life after the twins' violent death has simply gone on, with relative non-eventfulness and, ironically, what now triggers her distant memories of the twins and their horrible deaths is when she herself now goes to the area of the icehouse in order to make love. Violence and death was once, the narrator knows, literally "right around the corner" from where she now enjoys the ecstasy of lovemaking, but at the same time the memory of the Kunkel twins' fateful afternoon nearby, so long ago, though it remains sharp and vivid is also, somehow, at the same time, distant and surreal."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Bender, Eileen T. "Joyce Carol Oates, b. 1938." Retrieved May 11, 2006, from:<http://www.georgetown.edu/faculty/bassr/heath/syllabuild/iguide/oates.html>.
• Celestial Timepiece: A Joyce Carol Oates Home Page. Retrieved May 11, 2006, from:<http://www.usfca.edu/fac staff/southerr/wagner.html#preface .html>.
• Friedan, Betty. The Second Stage. New York: Summit, 1981. 341.
• Gilbert, Sandra M., and Susan Gubar. "Joyce Carol Oates 1938-". The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women. Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar (Eds.). New York: Norton, 1985. 2276-2277.
• Johnson, Greg. Invisible Writer: A Biography of Joyce Carol Oates. New York: Dutton, 1998.

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• Analytical Essay # 75262 : " Joyce Carol Oates"
• Analytical Essay # 54228 : "Joyce Carol Oates's Victimization of Women"

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