preview

Where Is Here

Decent Essays

In Joyce Carol Oats’ “Where is Here?”, a strange visitor comes to a family’s home to look through and reminisce about his childhood. Throughout the story, the stranger moves from place to place about the house, stopping and telling little details from his childhood concerning some of the rooms. Oats’ chooses to have the stranger move about the house in a certain order, as to have the desired effect on readers.Throughout the events of “Where is Here?”, this effect is achieved. The stranger first starts his tour in the garage. However, the reader does not get any details about why the stranger might be interested in the garage. He then moves to the backyard, going down to an old swing set. The reader learns that these swings were more than likely there when the stranger was a child because of the posts being rotted. Without giving the readers almost any detail about the outside of the house, the story moves on to the stranger being invited inside. Once inside the house, the stranger goes into the kitchen. He notices some things have changed since he lived in the house, but some have stayed the same. He also makes a remark about a door, asking if it leads to the basement. However the couple ignores this question and moves on. The stranger then notices some flowers on a windowsill and says his mother used to have flowers there too, although they never bloomed. He then moves to the dining room, telling about who sat where at the table. Also, the reader discovers that the couple’s children are the same age as the stranger and his sister were when they lived in this house. Next came the living room, in which the stranger pointed out that there used to be a water stain on the fireplace mantel, but the couple hadn’t seen it before. He also tells about the window seat, and how it was one of his happy places in the house whenever his father wasn’t home. He says that his mother would sit there with him as they plotted together. She would also read him stories and riddles that he could never answer. When the mother asks the stranger if his mother is still alive, he answers no and says,”We’ve all been dead—they’ve all been dead—a long time.” The story then states that the stranger seemed to limp his way up the stairs,

Get Access