Possibilities

Joyce Carol Oates based her short story, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” on “a real-life incident involving a young teenaged girl and a "charismatic" serial killer in Tucson, Arizona.” She brings this incident to life with her two main characters—Arnold Friend, a disturbed and oddly spellbinding killer and his helpless teenage victim, the self-absorbed Connie. Oates uses her characters to craft a fascinating portrayal of how this “charismatic” serial killer might manipulate and abduct his teenage victim. In “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been,” Joyce Carol Oates grips her readers in an increasing sense of helplessness and desperation by unfolding the character of a deranged killer through the eyes of a naïve teenage girl.

Arnold Friend first enters the story when Connie and her friends are at the drive-in restaurant. Connie notices that he is staring at her and describes him as “a boy with shaggy black hair, in a convertible jalopy painted gold” (615). The reader is led to assume from her observations that he is just another teenage boy at the drive-in gawking at her. Days later when Arnold Friend pulls up to her house with his friend, Ellie, to ask her to “come for a ride” with them, Connie still does realize they are not teenagers (617). Initially, Connie treats Arnold like she would any other teenage boy who showed an interest in her. She is “careful to show no interest” in him, she “pretend[s] to fidget” when he tells her that she is cute, and “she couldn’t decide if she liked him…and so she dawdled in the doorway and wouldn’t come down or go back inside” (617). In addition, she likes the way he is dressed and notes that it “was the way all of them dressed” (618). Nevertheless, there are several clues for the reader at this point in the story that suggests that Arnold is not what he appears to be. The narrator describes Arnold as “sniffing [Connie] as if she were a treat he was going to gobble up,” and his laughter as “all fake” (618). These subtle clues serve to hint at the danger Connie is in and starts to make the reader uneasy.

The reader’s feeling of anxiety and dread increases as Connie’s conversation with Arnold reveals that he has been stalking her and pretending to be a teenager. The reader becomes suspicious that something is amiss with the way he has “taken a special interest” in Connie and has “found out all about her” (618). However, Connie does not grasp the danger and is flattered that Arnold “had remembered her” (618). Only when Arnold names all of her friends and claims to know them, does Connie begin to suspect that Arnold is not what he claims. She becomes suspicious of the expression written on his car’s front fender in black paint, “man the flying saucers” because kids used it the previous year, but not anymore (619). Eventually Connie realizes that all the things about him do not “come together” (619). Connie’s feels dizzy and afraid as she comprehends the total situation that Arnold is not a teenager but a man of thirty or more years. Yet at this point, Connie still does not understand the full extent of her peril.

The reader becomes immersed in Connie’s fear and desperation as she finally begins to comprehend the full extent of her danger. Not only does Arnold refuse to leave but he begins to issue terrifying threats. Arnold warns that he will break down the screen door, light the house on fire, or kill her family when they return if she does not come out of the house. In addition Connie—as well as the reader—is able to clearly see how unstable and deranged Arnold truly is. He terrifies her with statements like “I’m your lover,” “I’ll show you what love is like,” and “I’ll come inside you where it’s all secret and you’ll give in to me” (621). The reader is able experience Connie’s terror and the fear that paralyzes her and prevents her from calling for help. This was Joyce Carol Oates’s intention, to place her reader in a quandary over Connie’s final capitulation. The key dilemma of the story is why Connie in the end surrenders to a rapist and possibly her killer. The reader is left to wonder whether Connie was trying to protect her family, thought she had no other options or simply was too paralyzed by fear. Joyce Carol Oates leaves her readers shaking their heads in frustration over the possibilities. (771)

Better Late Than Never

My favorite story this week was “Shiloh” by Bobbie Ann Mason. “Shiloh” is a story about a middle aged Norma Jean who finally grows up. Married as a pregnant teenager to Leroy Moffitt, Norma Jean does not realize her disaffection with her life until an accident forces Norma Jean to change her day to day lifestyle. Leroy her trucker husband is home indefinitely and now Norma Jean for the first time becomes involved in activities outside the home. She starts by weightlifting and graduates from a six-week body-building course. She then decides to take “an adult education course in composition at the Paducah Community College” (610). She also begins to cook “unusual” foods like tacos, lasagna, and Bombay chicken. The final sign that Norma Jean is living her own life comes when her mother catches her smoking. Instead of reacting like an adult, Norma Jean reacts like a guilty child and starts crying. Eventually she accepts responsibility for her smoking habit and makes the decision to quit. All of these events reflect Norma Jean’s desire to take responsibility for her life and discover who she is and what she wants.

One of the consequences of Norma Jean’s new life is her disillusionment with her marriage. There are many signs of this disenchantment —she never stays home with Leroy, she closes her eyes when they are in bed because she does not want to see him, and she has no desire to cook Leroy’s favorite foods for him anymore. Leroy’s desire to slow down and experience being home is in direct opposition to Norma Jean’s desire to get out and recapture lost opportunities. Unlike Norma Jean who seems to have been frozen in her “teenage” state most of her adult life, Leroy has spent his “flying past scenery” and he wants to slow down and examine things (605). He reverts to child-like hobbies, like “[making] things from craft kits” (604). He makes a miniature log cabin from notched Popsicle sticks, he tries string art and needlepoint, and he builds a snap-together B-17 flying fortress and a lamp made out of a model truck. He even wants to “[build] a full-scale log house from a kit” for Norma Jean. Norma Jean is impatient with Leroy’s hobbies. She does not want him to build her a log cabin house and she comes up with excuses like “they won’t let you build a log cabin in any of the new subdivisions” or “I don’t want to live in any log cabin” (608). It is this impatience with Leroy that leads to the disintegration of their marriage; as Leroy realizes in the end, Norma Jean is already lost to him.

Now that Leroy is home, he believes that “he is finally settling down with the woman he loves,” and he wants “to create a new marriage, start afresh” (605, 606). Norma Jean on the other hand has come to the realization that her marriage is over and wants to move on with her life. This obviously creates tension between them as “he wishes she would celebrate his permanent home-coming more happily,” and is saddened when he senses that she is disappointed with his presence (605). To further exacerbate the situation, Leroy still feels like an untried teenager around Norma Jean. When they visit Shiloh he becomes awkward and uncomfortable “like a boy on a date with an older girl” (612). Norma Jean and Leroy have been slowly growing apart throughout all the years of their marriage. When they are finally forced to live together again, the sad realization of their broken relationship comes to light. The story ends with Norma Jean finally breaking free of a marriage that has prevented her from growing up and experiencing a full and satisfying life. (626)

Wolves and Wierdos

This week, I found a most fascinating story to write about in my short story project. I came upon the story while flipping through Mr. Coon’s book, The Best American Short Stories of 2007. I was immediately drawn to it because of the title, “St. Lucy’s School for Girls Raised by Wolves.” The story is told in the first person, from the point of view of Claudette, or “Trrr”, a wolf-girl raised by werewolf parents. Although her parents were werewolves, she and her sisters were human girls because the condition skips a generation. Claudette and her sisters are sent to St. Lucy’s by their parents “because they wanted something better for [them]” (326). This story details their time at St. Lucy’s from when they arrive “all hair and snarl and floor-thumping joy” to when they graduate, civilized and able to live among humans (325).

I enjoyed this story for several reasons. The first is my fascination with wolves. The wolf has always been one of my favorite animals especially when I was younger. Many of my favorite novels growing up--- Call of the Wild, White Fang, Julie of the Wolves, and The Sight--- were about wolves. I was so drawn to wolves that I designed and maintained a role play website with Tori Hussey in middle school. Reading this story reminded me of my childhood fascination with wolves. This story also reminded me of a non-fiction book I stumbled on while trying pass time in supervised study in middle school. The book was the real-life story of two boys who were raised by wolves and then captured and raised in a nearby convent. The wolf-boys had been unable to adapt to human society and eventually remained in a type of captivity at the convent until their deaths. Although the title “St. Lucy’s School for Girls Raised by Wolves” might lead the reader to believe the content is heavy and serious, the story actually has a light and humorous tone and does not have a dark and tragic ending. I also enjoyed reading this story because of the writing style of Karen Russell. I loved her unusual words and phrases she created to describe the different characters in the story-- “hirsute and sinewy” to describe the wolf-girls; “nervous-smelling” to describe their social worker; and “apple-cheeked” to describe the little girls that came to St. Lucy’s to play with the wolf sisters. I am excited that I will be writing my short story project on “St. Lucy’s School for Girls Raised by Wolves.”

Now a few words about one of this weeks short stories; “Cathedral” was the only story I enjoyed reading this week. However, I thought it was a most unusual and bizarre narrative. The first odd aspect was the emotional interplay of the characters: a middle aged blind man who is newly widowed, but does not really seem to be grieving and his long time female friend, who have a rather odd history together, as well as her second husband who does not seem to be on great terms with her, and is most awkward with his blind guest. Furthermore, the scenes of these three middle aged people sitting down to smoke a joint and conversation with a blind man about black and white TV’s and color TV’s added to the oddity of the situation. I found it difficult to understand what could make a person so uncomfortable with someone’s blindness, but this was perhaps a thought provoking look into unusual prejudices. I think I would feel empathy towards someone who is blind, not discomfort, but I wonder if the husband’s reaction is perhaps more common. Nevertheless I enjoyed this story regardless of its oddity. (615)

Truly Crazy

When Mr. Coon presented the short story, “A Rose for Emily”, to our class on Monday, he briefly touched on a subject that piqued my interest--- the Southern Gothic Tradition. He told us, just as Ms. Driscoll did last year when we read this story, that “A Rose for Emily” had many of the qualities of a Southern Gothic story. We learned about Southern Gothic Literature last year, when we read the short story, “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allen Poe. Ms. Driscoll taught us that the Southern Gothic Tradition builds off of the European Gothic traditions that originated in 18th century England. European Gothic Literature included supernatural elements, mentally disturbed characters, and an atmosphere of terror and dread. Southern Gothic Literature tends to focus on mental disease and disturbed characters and takes place in the south. If these are the qualities of Southern Gothic Literature, I was curious as to why “A Rose for Emily” is described as having some of the characteristics of but not a true classic example of a Southern Gothic story. I decided to explore to what extent “A Rose for Emily” is or is not an archetypal Southern Gothic story.

Perhaps the main reason, that “A Rose for Emily” is often overlooked as a Southern Gothic story, is that its gothic qualities do not become apparent until the end of the story when Homer Barron’s corpse is discovered in Emily Grierson’s attic bedroom. The narrative starts with Emily’s funeral and explores her strange life and disturbed personality which is a principal attribute of a gothic story. However, Faulkner wrote this story out of chronological order so the details and clues in the story do not naturally lead the reader to the rational conclusion. It is not until the reader realizes that Emily not only killed Homer Barron but also slept with his corpse that the clues throughout the story start to fall in place. Indeed, the Gothic elements become quite evident on a second, reading of the story. These elements include Emily’s great-aunt, Lady Wyatt, who was “completely crazy” (31); Emily’s strained and troubled relationship with her father; her refusal to accept her father’s death and release her father’s corpse for burial; her purchase of arsenic; Homer Barron’s disappearance; and the strange smell coming from her house after he disappeared. In the correct order, these events lead the reader to the obvious conclusion, that Emily had killed Homer Barron. It is a testament to Faulkner’s literary genius that he feeds his readers these disjointed clues little by little, so as to heighten the shock value of the ending. I do not think, “A Rose for Emily” should be disregarded as a Southern Gothic story, as it possesses all the basic elements: a disturbed and tragic main character; a stereotypical southern setting, and a bizarre and grotesque ending. The novel’s unique layout leaves the reader in a state of bewilderment throughout most of the narrative, however, this is not reason enough to prevent “A Rose for Emily” from taking its rightful place among the hallowed dark stories of the Southern Gothic Tradition. (521)