Joyce Carol Oates 'What Doesn' T Exist, Is Everything
Jodelis Diaz
Joyce Carol Oates is a very distinguished American writer but is known worldwide. She has produced novels, plays, short stories, and poetry. Oates is known for dark stories, brutality that her characters endure, and how she puts her personal life into these stories. Four sources that I have provided show how her stories connect with her life and why they are so dark. My first source, “The ‘I,’ Which doesn’t Exist, is Everything” written by Jonne V. Creighton gives in depth information about her family background and as to why her stories are so dark. In this article, Oates says it because it “is part of her literal and psychic inheritance” (Creighton) that is why her work is so dark. Also, her family past had a violent history, her great-grandfather attempted to kill his wife and then kills himself at the end, her maternal grandfather was murdered in a brawl and her paternal grandfather abandoned her father and grandmother when he was young boy. My second source, …show more content…
In one of her short stories, Last Days ( 1984) they said that her work was “ excessive, overdone, and wrought”. (qtd in Wilson) But others argued that it was “one of her strongest” (qtd in Wilson). In Angel of Light, Oates received the same reviews as I read in my sources. One said Angel of Light was “a stunning performance by writer whose power and vision seem to grow each novel… It is.. a psychological study with overtones of classical Greek tragedy, an inquiry into the nature of justice and revenge, a many-layered dissection of love and loyalty and deceit.” (qtd in Wilson), Another critic said in Angel of Light “can have little doubt that Oates is an extremely careful and deliberate craftsman.” (qtd in Johnson). Even though there are more reviews about her work. Oates says she just doesn’t have the time to read reviews and says that it is very distracting.
Joyce Carol Oates is a very distinguished American writer but is known worldwide. She has produced novels, plays, short stories, and poetry. Oates is known for dark stories, brutality that her characters endure, and how she puts her personal life into these stories. Four sources that I have provided show how her stories connect with her life and why they are so dark. My first source, “The ‘I,’ Which doesn’t Exist, is Everything” written by Jonne V. Creighton gives in depth information about her family background and as to why her stories are so dark. In this article, Oates says it because it “is part of her literal and psychic inheritance” (Creighton) that is why her work is so dark. Also, her family past had a violent history, her great-grandfather attempted to kill his wife and then kills himself at the end, her maternal grandfather was murdered in a brawl and her paternal grandfather abandoned her father and grandmother when he was young boy. My second source, …show more content…
In one of her short stories, Last Days ( 1984) they said that her work was “ excessive, overdone, and wrought”. (qtd in Wilson) But others argued that it was “one of her strongest” (qtd in Wilson). In Angel of Light, Oates received the same reviews as I read in my sources. One said Angel of Light was “a stunning performance by writer whose power and vision seem to grow each novel… It is.. a psychological study with overtones of classical Greek tragedy, an inquiry into the nature of justice and revenge, a many-layered dissection of love and loyalty and deceit.” (qtd in Wilson), Another critic said in Angel of Light “can have little doubt that Oates is an extremely careful and deliberate craftsman.” (qtd in Johnson). Even though there are more reviews about her work. Oates says she just doesn’t have the time to read reviews and says that it is very distracting.