Jordan Mckenna

Jordan McKenna

Professor Jordan

English 1101

4 September 2009

Joyce Carol Oates:

High Lonesome

Depressing stories, awkward situations, troublesome children, and more problems than anyone could imagine. Oates writing is very puzzling, it will leave you baffled and bewildered. Some stories are so weird that you are stuck thinking something for the whole stories but then at the end you may finally get the full understanding. Ignorance is also bliss in Oates: High Lonesome. Ignorance of a situation will help maintain a relationship; as a result not knowing can preserve negative effects on relationships.

The door in Oates In Hot May, was a very appealing object in the story. Kileen was ignorant on what was going on inside the house. While Kileen waited outside she was baffled at the circumstances. At the time she was immune to the pain that had been pushed upon her. The Door was a object granting killen freedom from the situation.The problems she was havin could have been drasticly avoided, and her moher being the authority figure should have known that her daughter being involved could corrupt her daughters life.

In Oates Spider boy, Phillip’s mother has no full understanding on what happens when they go off on their trips. For example Phillips father quoted saying “ONLY JUST TELL HER what we did. If she ask. ‘Camping’. She won’t ask much”(Oates 9). When his mother had no idea about what was actually happening she was fine and unconcerned. When she found out she gave off such a negative vibe that Phillip ran away. Oates states that “Phillips mother had become too upset to listen to the interview with the detectives she had to be escorted from the room…” (Oates 19). The more you know sometimes damages relationships. One feels left out or made that the other couldn’t confide in each other. Troubling circumstances that unknown will have no effect on an individual. When they actually find out the situation may be blown way out of proportion.

Taylor Mense

Dr. Jordan

English 1101

2 September 2009

TITLE

It is every girl’s dream to look down at the man of her dreams on one knee, holding a small box with a shiny, precious gem attached to a gleaming gold band inside. Well, almost every girl’s dream. In Joyce Carol Oates’ collection of short stories, “Life After High School” depicts the story of how a tiny engagement ring symbolizes something much different than a promise of eternal devotion to another human being. It represents the inevitable downfall of one character so that two others may excel.

Zachary Graff’s character was meant to fail, as early connotation foreshadows. Early on in the story, he is described as extremely gifted student. “If Zachary’s excellent academic record continued uninterrupted through final papers, final exams…Zachary would be valedictorian of the Class of 1959” (Oates 630). The use of this connotation indicates an abrupt ending to Zachary’s excellence, which happens through his growing obsession with Sunny. The origin of his infatuation with Barbra “Sunny” Burhman is unknown although one day Sunny recalls “there Zachary was” (630). As Zachary begins to reveal himself to Sunny, he bombards her with information that Sunny is too naive to contemplate. Her amiable nature makes her a target for Zachary’s thoughts as she listened intently to his thoughts on life, science, and religion. A few car rides later, Zachary Graff basically asks for permission to attend Cornell University with Sunny. “’Zachary, it’s a free world,’” (636) she replies. This comment registered in Zachary’s mind much differently that Sunny intended it to, as this was the beginning of the end for Graff. The next time the two are together, Zachary Graff proposes to Sunny, and she rejects him. Like any guy facing rejection, Zachary secludes himself from Sunny Burhman until one night he waits out her window as he reassured her: “’I told you- I can love enough for both!’” (640). The “raw urgency” (640) Sunny senses scares her as she panics and pleads him to leave. Within the next twenty four hours, Zachary Graff is dead by his own doing and assures “all others guiltless as they are ignorant of the death of the aforementioned and the life.” (641). It could be argued that Zachary Graff was the protagonist in this case due to several instances where he would magically appear in the same location where Sunny was, and certainly on the evening of his suicide.

In light of Zachary Graff’s suicide, Sunny Burhman is one of two characters that excels after his ultimate failure. Sunny is the epitome of the All American girl, who seems to catch the eye of the outsider, Graff. Connotation also relays her future, “later to distinguish herself at Cornell” (610), which is a direct result of Zachary’s desperate proposal of the ring, and his suicide. After the death of Zachary Graff, Sunny secludes herself and seems to fall short of what early foreshadowing seems to depict. She becomes anti social, “withdrew her name from the balloting for the senior prom queen, she withdrew from her part in the senior play, she dropped out of choir…”(641) and the exact opposite of “Sunny,” in fact. But, sunny has reached her turning point. After she finally stands up for herself against Zachary’s forceful plea “the spell was broken” (640) and their fates decided. Sunny transforms into Barbra Burhman, now free of the mold she was never meant to fit. The name change acts as a catalyst for her success, as she becomes a distinguished public figure who is the exact opposite of the All-American girl, Sunny Burhman. Barbra Burhman finds it difficult to relate to her former self, after abandoning her faith and high school mentality with the attitude that she had never been Sunny. Therefore, if Zachary Graff had been the antagonist, Barbra is automatically the protagonist. “The irony had not escaped Barbra Burhman that, in casting away his young life so recklessly, Zachary Graff had freed her for hers” (643).

Taryn O’Dell
O’Dell 1
Dr. M. Jordan
English 1101
2 September 2009
Joyce Carol Oates:
The Fish Factory
Oates story “The Fish Factory” presents a number of different
signs/symbols, however three that seemed to stand out and play an
important role throughout the story were: the fish factory itself,
Tanya’s body imprint, and also the city of Trenton. The three of these
stood out more than the rest because of their relationship of once
being something that had life in them and then with time they all
seemed to have lost their lives, only leaving behind an imprint. The
significance of the imprints show a parallel between Tanya’s body
imprint and the “imprint” that it left on her mother with her being
gone, and the relation to the imprint that the fish factory has left on
the town of Trenton.
The fish factory that’s actual name was Neptune Seafood Inc. was an
old canning factory that had been shut down for many years, like a
number of other factories throughout the city of Trenton, which was
home to both the fish factory and the Roscrae family. “When we moved to
East Trenton we knew nothing of Neptune Seafood, Inc. as we knew
nothing of other shut down, boarded up, bankrupt and abandoned
factories, mills, and warehouses on the river” (Oates 28). The factory
was no longer in operation but the building itself was still there,
sitting as an imprint on the town, as merely a “once was” building. The
fact that Tanya possibly chose this building to lie behind seems to
show that she may have felt some kind of connection to it, possibly
that she knew only few people traveled this way and only knew little
about it. She may have felt that like
O’Dell 2
the factory only few people dared to cross her path and find out more
about her, even her own parents.
Tanya’s body imprint was also another sign that stood out, showing
that she had at one point been there but no longer was, just as Neptune
Seafood Inc. had once been in operation in the factory building. “ They
had not found the tarpaulin or any trace of human blood behind the fish
factory where the body had been placed, which was where the boys had
led them; there, there was only the “impress” of an object of the size
and weight of an adolescent female” (Oates 27). Tanya’s imprint on the
grass behind the fish factory is similar to the imprint that the old
fish factory has left on the town of Trenton. Both have left something
behind saying that they had once been there open and alive, literally
(for the factory) and physically (for Tanya). For Tanya’s mother the
imprint was most troubling and painful because she realized that she
knew very little of her daughter’s life outside of home and was not
able to give the cops any more information than any other person that
knew Tanya. The fact that only the impress was recovered left Tanya’s
mother empty, the impress wasn’t enough she wanted her daughter’s
actual body, proof that it was actually her not just “hear-say” from
some neighborhood boys that it was Tanya Roscrae’s body lying there
behind the factory.
As for the city of Trenton itself it had once like the fish factory
and Tanya’s body been “alive.” Now the town was old and looked to be
dying. As Tanya’s mother described, every time she turned around
another business was closing down or another school was being shut down
due to lack of population in the town. People were constantly moving
away and leaving their homes abandoned and up for sale. The town was
becoming a “ghost town”, it seemed as if the
O’Dell 3
town was just a shadow of what used to be there. Kids had to go to
neighboring cities in order to attend a school to get an education
because the city of Trenton did not have enough students in order to
keep their schools in operation. “The city of Trenton has been
shrinking for years. There are abandoned houses, blocks of
rubble-strewn vacant lots as after a bombing. There are boarded-up
office buildings and factories. The walls of the old state prison you
see driving on Route 1 are ugly and weatherworn as ancient stone. The
school-age population has so declined, a number of schools have been
closed” (Oates 35). The city of Trenton could possibly be a parallel to
Tanya’s mother. Tanya’s mother is like Trenton they are the foundation
for Tanya and the fish factory. Yet, over time both have failed at
progressing them to the next level. Tanya’s mother let Tanya become
someone she no longer knew other than the fact that she was her
daughter “After Tanya disappeared we would learn certain facts about
our daughter that shocked us, and shamed us. For instance, she rarely
rode the school bus but rode with “friends” and we had no knowledge of
who these “friends were. Of course we had been informed by the school
that Tanya often cut classes but not that, in school, Tanya was sulky
and bored, sometimes so sleepy that she could barely keep her eyes
open” (Oates 35). The city of Trenton had been the foundation for
businesses like the fish factory yet it began to lose all of this due
to the population moving away, leading to the closing of the fish
factory.
As you can see all three of these signs are in close relation due to
the effect of something once being alive and now becoming like a ghost
by leaving behind only an imprint of some sort. It has not actually
left the world but only in spirit and life. The town, the fish factory,
and Tanya’s body all have kind of came and gone. These signs show
significance to the story and
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also to how Tanya’s mother perceives the death/loss of her daughter.
She see’s Tanya as a little girl who used to be so full of life and
loved her mother, to a young woman whom she no longer knew that just
came in and out of the house and her mother’s presence in a ghost like
sense. Tanya’s mother explains how her daughter grew up so quickly that
she didn’t even realize until her death/runaway that she knew very
little about her daughter’s life. Now that Tanya is gone her mother
realizes the importance of her daughter in her life and wishes that she
had paid more attention and actually tried to keep a relationship with
her daughter as Tanya grew older. Again this shows a parallel that
Tanya was important to her mother but, just as the fish factory had
been important to the city of Trenton. With both gone now they leave
nothing but a memory of something or an “imprint”.

Olatunde Oshikoya

Melanie Jordan

ENGL 1101

Essay#1-Draft

Joyce Carol Oates: Mother Dearest

In an average society, the mother is known as the caregiver and support system that holds the family together. However, in Joyce Carol Oates’ society, the mother figure is a loud, obnoxious and somewhat overbearing person that acts with no hesitation. In addition, the family unit is not as loving and cohesive as one would usually assume. The idea of the “overbearing mother” is significant to “Spider Boy” and “In Hot May” because the children in the stories are emotionally scarred and damaged as a result of their mothers’ projection on them. This in turn, causes them to suffer and become “tools” of the adolescents in a sense.

In “Spider Boy”, Philip’s mother, Miriam Hudgkins, was a loud, cavalier person that liked to have a sense of control over every aspect of every situation. Her glaring red lips suggested that she was an overly strong, independent woman (Oates #17). One would be safe to assume that after the rough divorce she went through with Philips’s father, Roy Szarra, Miriam did not react well and did not know how to handle the stress she felt in a positive manner. She constantly tried to assert her dominance and be a felt presence in Philip‘s life, especially at the Trenton Police Office. She was so controlling and embarrassing to Philip that she eventually drove him to release all the information about his father and the missing children (Oates #19). After the questioning she was clearly upset yet somewhat understanding of the newfound knowledge of the missing children and Philip’s involvement with his father. Then in a heartbeat, was irate with Philip and even went as far as to suggest to him to get out of the car (Oates #20). Philip is left to wander aimlessly in the park with his mother searching everywhere in a hopeless manner. Maybe if his mother were more loving, Philip wouldn’t have run away all alone. Maybe if the missing childrens’ mothers were just a little more loving, they would have a happier ending as well.