Joyce Carol Oates Short Story Analysis

The World War II generation returned from battle filled with confidence and hope. Little did they know they would experience violent times as hostilities emerged between social classes and racial segregation. Current events greatly influence the framework of Joyce Carol Oates style of writing as Oates brings the harsh reality of life to each of her multiple works of literature. This is clearly evident in her groundbreaking story, them, which details how life events shape the characters in the novel. The depth of violence experienced by the characters is impacted by social circumstances in the United States. By exploring social classes through the thoughts of a working family in America, Joyce

Joyce Carol Oates has captivated the imagination of the reader within her short story The Abduction. There are many components to making a story great as well, and in his Ted Talk “The Clues to a Great Story”, Andrew Stanton goes into detail about the dos and don’ts of story. Joyce Carol Oates uses several of the positive references from Stanton’s Ted Talk throughout her short story to grab the reader’s attention and envelope them into the story of a girl gone missing.

The short story “Where is Here” by Joyce Carol Oats introduces us to a very complex character, labeled the stranger. The author uses the method of indirect characterization, which results in the reader making their own assumptions of the character. Indirect characterization includes some of the following: stranger’s appearance, speech, actions, private thoughts, as well as the reactions of others. The previously stated categories are the things we will analyze and draw conclusions from.

As any university student can and will attest to, writing is a hard process that sometimes requires the aid of different techniques, like irony, to articulate certain issues in new and unique ways . Such is the case in Billy Collins’ poem “On Turning Ten” where irony is used as the major support beam to help prop up his speaker’s thoughts on growing up and childhood that would collapse without it. In the poem, the speaker, a nine-year-old child, is lamenting, as the title suggests, turning ten. Throughout the poem, the speaker goes through memories they have of their childhood, and the different expectations they have of growing up. It is clear in the poem that irony is used to drive home points that need it to function. Irony is used in the

In the short story “The Veldt,” irony is set off when the parents do not want to have a perfect life. The kids have a room that babysits them and takes care of them. The parents

In Joyce Carol Oates’ story entitled “The Lady with the Pet Dog,” the main character Anna fits Sigmund Freud’s definition of neurotic: “the ego and id become involved in an internal battle Freud calls neurosis” (Bressler 130). In addition to the ego and id, Anna’s superego also comes into play within her struggle. Throughout Oates’ story, the reader sees Anna’s internal conflict between the id, which dominates her personality, the ego, and the superego, which results in her neurosis. Oates makes it clear that the most dominant component of Anna’s psyche is the id, as she did not have the ability to resist her impulsive desires.

Source: CAPPELEN DAMM AS, Oslo 2008 – ''Access to English literature, VG3''. Anthony, Burgess, Mikkelsen & Sørhus. Chapter 1, page 23-24.

The moral of this entry, written by Flannery O’Connor, is that all individuals have their own perception about what composes a person who is good and bad. I also believe that the author wants readers to be true to themselves and question if they are in fact good people from within or if it’s just in their heads. In addition to that, I get the impression that Flannery O’Connor is telling us to not criticize or judge others just because they have different beliefs or a different live style. In other words, we shouldn’t place labels on those who, in our eyes, aren’t on the same level as us.

Not many grown up can makes sense of irony, what can high schools students understand? The authors has tried to teach this to teenagers no matter how good he was or the experience he had he was not able to convince

Tuesdays with Morrie an old man, a young man, and life’s greatest lesson: by Mitch Albom is a touching story about understanding the meaning of life; in the form of a professor’s final lesson to his former student. Throughout this final thesis the reader sees how the different Erikson’s developmental stages come into play. Morrie Schwartz is described during different life stages, such as a child feeling lost, growing up and becoming a professor, up until reaching his final months. Where the music that moved inside him his whole life was taken by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a disease that at took his body but left the world with his lessons.

Flannery O 'Connor wrote as a Catholic and a Southerner, commonly writes about epiphanies and redemption. Flannery O’Connor writes about characters that aren’t quite following the right path, but continue their life believing they are. Her background as a catholic can be seen in her writing, she believes in epiphany, “epiphany that results in resurrection and rebirth” (Keil par. 4). She is a talented writer, who wrote about many different literary elements. The main characters in the stories are wandering believers on journeys to find redemption. Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” (1953) and “Everything That Rises Must Converge” (1965) both contain a traveling setting within which both include characters that similarly travel on a journey of redemption, using characterization, symbolism, and irony to show the absurdity of human behavior.

In “The Story of an Hour,” one of the messages about marriage that is trying to be sent is that the system of marriage itself, not the husband, does women wrong. The narrator shows that Louis crying at the news of her husband’s death, “with sudden, wild abandonment” (169). The word “wild” implies a sense of nature and that her initial reaction was instinctual and natural. Such a reaction is normal towards a husband who has been very loving of Louis as far as the narrator reveals. Although remorseful in front of others in public, Louis feels very happy in private. Louis feels liberated that she is no longer held in bondage to her husband, but still feels depressed as she is

Some of the stories told by O’Brien were a little morbid the way some of the soldiers react to death. Curt Lemmon was killed by a mortar and blown up. O’Brien had to climb a tree to retrieve the remains of Lemmon. One of the soldiers makes a joke about it being a “lemon” tree. After Lemons death a fellow soldier Rat Kiley writes a long letter to Lemmon’s sister to tell her of the bad news. Kiley is very upset that there was never a response from the sister. Another story was told about a baby water buffalo that was tortured and killed after Lemmon’s death in

"The story of an Hour" is a bright amazing piece by Kate Chopin, which realistically represents feelings and thoughts of women of that times. Mrs. Mallard is a main character, who received a news about her husband tragic death. She has a heart issue, which concerns and stresses her family about her reaction. "It was her sister Josephine who told her, in broken sentences;" (1) It is obvious, that Josephine is so emotional and nervous, so confused, that cannot find proper words.

Are you ready to analyze three stories? Yes? Awesome! No? Too bad, because here we go! The three stories in question are The Leap by Louise Erdrich, The Contents of a Dead Man’s Pockets by Jack Finney, and Ambush by Tim O’Brien. The authors of these stories use aspects of their stories to shape the plot, show the theme, and to change the views and opinions of the characters in the stories.