Аnalysis

The novel is written by Joyce Carol Oates. The author is a distinguished American author.Oates has produced an amazing variety of excellent work in all genres: novels, short fiction, drama, critical essays, poetry, reviews of contemporary writing and ideas. In her works, Oates focuses on different sides of American society - the spiritual, sexual, and intellectual decline of modern.

She wrote in elliptical prose style, she depicts such cruel and atrocious things as rape, incest, murder, child abuse, and suicide to delineate the forces of evil with which individuals must contend.

She insists that her writing is "experimental," but her individual works are highly accessible. She is known for her violent subject matter and accessible rich style, what is more, her stories frustrate "happy ending». In her works, she is concern about the singular power of the self, and the high cost of the struggle for autonomy. Readers might focus on the patterns of selfhood and the possibilities for relationship in her work. Oates has experimented with almost every major literary school or set of conventions: naturalism, existentialism, social realism, detective stories, epic chronicle, romance.

Oates's first two short story collections, By the North Gate and Upon the Sweeping Flood and Other Stories. 

Both collections explore the decay of modern morality through a series of stories depicting a nonchalant brutality that, according to Oates. The Goddess and Other Women is another of Oates's collections that is unified by themes of sexual tension—specifically, sexual oppression of women.

Oates also wrote mysteries, essays, poetry, and literary criticism. Essays, reviews, and other prose pieces are included in Where I’ve Been, and Where I’m Going (1999) and In Rough Country (2010). In 2011 Oates published the memoir A Widow’s Story, in which she mourned her husband’s death. The Lost Landscape: A Writer’s Coming of Age (2015) is a memoir elliptically documenting her childhood. Oates has also composed several dramas that were produced off-Broadway in New York and has published numerous volumes of poetry. In addition, she is a respected essayist and literary critic whose nonfiction works are praised for the logic and sensibility with which she examines a variety of subjects.

So Joyce Carol Oates is a very interesting person, she depicts on the one hand a bit brutal events, but on the other hand very important. I think some part of her works will be better for reading when you are fourteen -sixteen and just are getting acquainted with the opportunities and consequences of adulthood.

The setting of the events in the given extract is realistic and historical. It provides a historical and cultural context of 1950s and 1960s, that’s why it we should find out a bit about this period for better understanding of the characters. It was the time of social revolution, feminism. Women's roles were extremely changed after Worls War II. They began to fight for their social rights to have more independence. They wanted freely show their sexuality ( as Connie did).

The youth movement began to count themselves as a distinct group. It was in some kind of rebellion to the parents and the boundaries of daily life, but their didn’t care much about social problems. Rock n' roll became the sound of this generation.

The events in the analysed text happen in American little town, in suburbs. By 1960, a third of the American population lived in the burbs, as many Americans wanted to escape the cities and live in surrounding suburbs.

All the setting places are generalised - it’s just typical town, typical shopping malls, typical drive-in restaurants, cinemas, “ranch”-style home.

 The plot is with many tricks, every my prediction was wrong. I couldn’t think that Connie would make such a decision. So don’t ride before the hounds and let’s start from the beginning of the story, particularly from the exposition. We get acquainted with the protagonist. Connie is a teenager, who cares about her appearance, attractiveness, sexuality more than relationship with family. As for her parents, father is absolutely out of bringing up the daughter and mother more criticizes and hold up as an example her older daughter, than tries to get on track with the Connie. The story develops as Connie’s friend father get girls to the shopping mall.  But they trick is that they goes to the local drive-in burger place where they can listen to music and spend time with older boys. One time she meets a boy who makes a strange gesture and says “Gonna get you, baby” , but the girl doesn’t placed emphasis to it. One Sunday Connie’s family go her aunt on barbecue, and she stays alone. 

Then she hears how a car pulls into her driveway. It is that guy from whom she recently has met, accompanied by a friend. 

His name is Arnold friend, and his friend’s name is Ellie Oscar. Arnold wants to take Connie for a ride. She is remote and not in vain. As Arnold fast talk gradually becomes more threaten, violent and sexually explicit, more over he knows much about Connie, from her family, even that where they are during their talk, also he lies about his age, pretending to be like other teenagers, but looks about forty. After that Connie wants him to go, but he just raises pressure. He threatens to harm her family if she won’t follow him. In addition, He warns the girl not to call the police, otherwise he will come inside the house. He wants her to join him of her own free will (as much as possible). Ellie suggests cutting out the phone line. The climax is, to my mind, when Connie attempts to get to the telephone, but she fails. She is so frighten, that felt lightheaded, it is something like panic attack, she loses touch with reality she suffers from delusions it seems to her that “Arnold Friend was stabbing her with again and again with no tenderness.” After that goes anticlimax, when she comes to her senses, she sees him still waiting her in front of the house. After all she obeys Arnold friend. But what she is motivated by? We can only guess. 

The thems are - thirst for independence, going into adult life. 

From the point of view of presentation the text is the 3rd person narrative we can see some subjectivity, as the story seems to be told from the Connie’s point of view. We sympathize and empathy her.

The types of speech employed by the author of the analysed extract are both narration ( in the first part) and dialogue ( mainly in the second part).

The characters we meet in the novel are Connie and Arnold Friend. The writer reveals them by means of both direct or indirect characterisation.

Connie is the protagonist of the story, she an ordinary teenager. She places her beauty above all. “she knew she was pretty and that was everything”. “Connie had long dark blond hair that drew anyone's eye to it, and she wore part of it pulled up on her head and puffed out and the rest of it she let fall down her back. She wore a pull-over jersey blouse that looked one way when she was at home and another way when she was away from home.”, “She constantly has to check her image in the mirror to be assured everything is fine. “She doesn’t have real friends just companions in their adventures. 

We can see two sides of her – for her parents and for the rest of the world. It’ typical for teenager, even I wasn’t an exception. At home –doesn’t engage with her family, she abuses with her mother, sister, she is miles away, dreaming about some romantic adventures (in its way), she isn’t in love with some definite boy, she just need this feeling of being adorable and needful. She places dates with boys higher than her relations with family. Partly I can understand it, as her mother were always complaining that Connie was worse, maybe that why Connie needed to feel herself adorable. "Stop gawking at yourself. Who are you? You think you're so pretty?"

Music takes important part in her life, it’s like a background which creates definite atmosphere.

She tries to look and behave older, but we can see how she is obsessed only with boys, sexuality, her appearance, thirst for romance and fancy trends.

She is on the way of becoming adult, and I’m sure she thinks she already is, but how he is wrong she realized only after, Arnold Friend’s threatening. Though I approve that seeing an older boy, who came to her, she behaved very careful, at first, but then she felt like child, who needs protection.

This is the provocative situation, when she shows herself. However, she is frighten to the death, after she get what he wanted – boy’s sexual attention. Though she tries at the beginning to put herself together, eventually she loses her control and then hope. It caused her decision of obeying. From the one hand it seems she did it to save her family, but it seems to me that there was something else.

Arnold Friend is an antagonist, is a strange and ambiguous character. He is quite strange and psycho man. Actually, we don’t know about his past and life, except those things which we realize through direct characteristics and something from his behavior and speech.

Speaking about his appearance it is presented directly – “It was a boy with shaggy black hair, in a convertible jalopy painted gold. “, “He wasn't tall, only an inch or so taller than she would be if she came down to him. Connie liked the way he was dressed, which was the way all of them dressed: tight faded jeans stuffed into black, scuffed boots, a belt that pulled his waist in and showed how lean he was, and a white pull-over shirt that was a little soiled and showed the hard small muscles of his arms and shoulders. He looked as if he probably did hard work, lifting and carrying things. Even his neck looked muscular. And his face was a familiar face, somehow: the jaw and chin and cheeks slightly darkened because he hadn't shaved for a day or two, and the nose long and hawklike, sniffing as if she were a treat he was going to gobble up and it was all a joke.”He is fake – he wears wig, hilled boots and lies about his age. He perfectly manipulates Connie and having control over her. He threatened her: “The driver's glasses were metallic and mirrored everything in miniature.” – before him he felt herself a little innocent girl. He approves that her family are wrong and argue that in contrast to Jude - Connie is special. It was just what the doctor ordered. Due his behavior it is obvious that he is mentally ill and quite dangerous not only fir young girl, but for everybody. It’s hard to say that something I liked in him, because hi is ill, mentally ill, and he believes he is a God and powerful.

In order to portray the characters vividly and convincingly the author of the analysed passage resorts to the following devices:

  Lexical:

Metaphor : speaking about Connie - “her face gleaming with a joy that had nothing to do with Eddie

or even this place;”, “" She always drew thick clear lines between herself and such girls”, “she wasn't interested, rolling her eyes to let her mother know just what she thought of it.”

Irony: Arnold  Friend, who wasn’t  a friend, just pretending.

simile: to describe and emphasis Arnold’s Friend features - “He took off the sunglasses and she saw how pale the skin around his eyes was, like holes that were not in shadow but instead in light. His eyes were like chips of broken glass that catch the light in an amiable way.”,  “hair that looked crazy as a wig”, “He spoke in a simple lilting voice, exactly as if he were reciting the words to a song”,” reddened slightly as if the veins grew too close to the surface of his skin”, to describe and emphasis Connie’s features - “…her laugh, which was cynical and drawling at home—“Ha, ha, very funny,”—but highpitched and nervous anywhere else, like the ringing of the charms on her bracelet.” , “She put her hands up against her ears as if she'd heard something terrible, something not meant for her.”, “inside your daddy's house—is nothing but a cardboard box”

Hyperbole: “Even his neck looked muscular” – to emphasis Arnold physical superiority.

antithesis – “June did this, June did that, she saved money and helped clean the house and cooked and Connie couldn't do a thing, her mind was all filled with trashy daydreams” 

to emphasis the difference between ideal daughter and bloody-minded one.

Symbol – her Home, was like a symbol of her, she was standing in the doorway and deciding what to do, it was like a crossover from the childhood to adult life.

Personification: “His smile assured her that everything was fine.”, “hair that drew anyone's eye to it” as for Arnold

Graphic: 

Italics: "He's kind of great," Connie said reluctantly. "Listen, that guy's great. He knows where the action is.", "Him, he's crazy,", “ —I mean, don't fool around,", Arnold made such remarks to show his superioty and poverty.

The author presents usage of colloquial  speech ( “dope”,” You're cute."). also some dialect words ("Toldja I'd be out, didn't I?", "Don'tcha like my car? New paint job,", "Can'tcha read it?", Can'tchasee I'm your own age?", "Don'tcha know it's Sunday all day?) in the speech of main characters. From the  Connies side it is obvious as she is a teenager, but from the Arnolds ( as he is at least 30) it emphasis his ignorant, ill-mannered man, pretending to be like teenager. 

Summing up the analysis of the given extract one should say that the writer Joyce Carol Oates brilliantly uses similes, metaphors which help to reveal the main character’s nature and to create a true-to-life atmosphere of the events depicted.