In Mark Twain’s classic American novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the protagonist, young Huck, is last seen preparing to “light out for the territories.” This story of Huck, poised on the brink of manhood, prepared to test his character and forge his identity on the frontier has become a master narrative for the American…
Tag: Joyce Carol Oates
How I Contemplated the World from the Detroit House of Correction: Setting
Urban Decay The late 1960s and early 1970s in America was a period marked by huge and permanent economic and demographic changes. Particularly hard hit by these sweeping changes were many of the country’s large industrial cities. Detroit became synonymous with urban decay and what soon came to be known as “white flight.” As the…
How I Contemplated the World from the Detroit House of Correction: Literary Devices
Fragmentary Structure Even many years after the story’s publication, the structure of “How I Contemplated” is still striking and somewhat unsettling to readers. The experimental form Gates uses is fragmentary and full of gaps. Instead of writing the story of an affluent young girl’s temporary descent into a life on the streets and in a…
How I Contemplated the World from the Detroit House of Correction: Themes
Love Love is the engine that drives all of the girl’s behavior in “How I Contemplated.” She may be misguided, self-destructive, and immature, but the narrator’s actions all derive from her desire to be loved. Despite their generosity, the girl’s parents seem unable to give her the attention and unguarded affection that she craves. She…
How I Contemplated the World from the Detroit House of Correction: Characters
Clarita A woman of indeterminate age (between twenty and thirty-five), she is an addict and a prostitute. She has “an odor of tobacco about her,” and has “unwashed skin, gritty toes, hair long and falling into strands, not recently washed.” She has been living on the streets since she was about thirteen years old. Dr….
How I Contemplated the World from the Detroit House of Correction: Summary
In a partial and disorganized set of notes for an essay for her English class at a private school, a sixteen-year-old girl tells the story of a set of events that lead her to a house of correction and to an opportunity to contemplate her life and begin over again. Though the details are not…
Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been: Analysis
Since Joyce Carol Oates’s phenomenal appearance on the literary scene in the mid-1960s, she has certainly been one of America’s most prolific and talked-about writers. The author of more than twenty novels and numerous volumes of short stories, poems, plays, and essays, she has drawn the attention of readers and critics alike. Whatever one’s opinion…
Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been: Setting
The Women’s Movement Interest in women’s equal rights was a subject of great controversy during the early years of Oates’s career leading up to “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” The 1960s and early 1970s marked the escalation of the women’s movement. Economic shifts meant that more women worked outside the home, and…
Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been: Literary Elements
Point of View The first line of “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”—”Her name was Connie “— signals that it is being told by a third-person narrator. This narrative voice stays closely aligned to Connie’s point of view. The reader learns what her thoughts are, but the narrator provides no additional information or…
Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been: Themes
The tale of an insecure, romantic teenage girl drawn into a situation of foreboding violence,”Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” presents several themes that arise from the interaction of sharply drawn characters engaged in psychological manipulation. Appearances and Reality Connie prides herself as a skilled flirt who has never been in a situation…