Joyce Carol Oates is a celebrated American author famed for her “enormous literary productivity” (Showalter 6). At 76 years old, Oates has published over 50 novels and 400 short stories, as well as additional plays, poetry, and non-fiction pieces. Such a large oeuvre is difficult to characterize, but Oates’ works are well-known for adopting the viewpoints of marginalized individuals and groups, as well as for including controversial and sometimes violent content.
Born...
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Appearance versus reality is a major theme of contemporary American fiction. The characters of American Pastoral, We Were the Mulvaneys, and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf may appear to be living one way, or portray a strong public face, but the...
“Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” by Joyce Carol Oates is a short story that was published in the 1966 Fall edition of Epoch magazine. Connie, a fifteen-year-old girl, who frequently picks up boys without her parent’s knowledge at a local...
The 1950s brought about a multitude of changes in the culture of the United States: “conservative family values and morals were threatened as the decade came to a close” (Literature and Its Times). What was unthinkable in the 1940s gradually...
Author Joyce Carol Oates of “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” and author Kate Chopin of “The Story of an Hour" use the “death of the maiden” motif effectively to support a theme of unwarranted patriarchy throughout their writing. Both...
The life and times of Joyce Carol Oates dynamically impact the short story, “Where You Are Going; Where Have You Been” in which music, myth and mores shape the social text corresponding with the 1960s. The 1965 rock song, “It’s All Over Now Baby...
A Fiend in Disguise in Joyce Carol Oates’ “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” Connie, a 15 year old in Joyce Carol Oates’ “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” is a prideful and churlish girl who has a habit of belittling others and...
“A sex symbol's currency lies in her youth, her curves, in the suggestion that a sexual encounter lurks around the next corner.” (Sharon Krum, The Guardian) The power struggle between genders in society is something that can be seen every day,...
Joyce Carol Oates’ short story Haunted deals with murder, mystery and the supernatural when the protagonist’s best friend, Mary Lou, is found dead. Set in a small, conservative farming town, Melissa and Mary Lou seem to live normal teenage lives....
Turn of the Screw by Henry James, on the surface, surrounds the demise of a child’s life and the demise of the governess that cares for him. However, when James’ diction is sifted through it dawns on the reader that there is an ambiguous nature...
