Where is here short story

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Rating details. Sort order. Start your review of Where is Here? Nov 02, Larry Bassett rated it really liked it Shelves: short-stories. I have not read any JCO in a while and have an entire shelf of books by her. I have also decided that it is time to focus on some short stories since my brain seems hard pressed to retain significant quantities of detail in longer stories. I just finished a book of short stories where most were ten pages or less and I enjoyed most of them.

It turns out that there are 35 storie I have not read any JCO in a while and have an entire shelf of books by her. It turns out that there are 35 stories in this book of less than pages. Really short stories! I open this book with the hope of being entertained. That is one way of having your life improved without interference of significant money or morality. Considering JCO is a well known and prolific author, this book published in has been rated by relatively few GR readers.

Oates takes me places that I might not otherwise go and gives me a strong sense that I am right there. The lipstick scrawls on the cinderblock walls, the mirrors specked with grime, stained sinks with hairs visible in the drains, stained toilets.

I rushed in, steeling myself for some disagreeable sight or odor, and one of the mirrors showed me wild-looking in the face, damp eyes and a mouth that appeared lipless. I winced, looked away, refused to acknowledge myself before I was ready to be seen.

The twenty year old is getting ready for a date and is late. It is also two pages and waiting for you right now. You could pause, take a breath, ready yourself. Remember that I expressed some hope of being entertained?

Well, good luck with that! I forgot. This is Joyce Carol Fucking Oates. Her entertainment will cost you some piece of mind. She makes you think. But not necessarily will she make you smile. She fled, she returned home. And she did telephone the SPCA. And the local police. It was hot weather, in any case. Often, she heard dogs barking.

In the distance. Any number of dogs. For the world was filled with barking dogs after all. The book is filled with special people. One or more in every short story. And then the murderer was arrested. And confessed. A local man, a resident too of the welfare hotel. And though Dennis Brewer was innocent presumably people continued to view him with a certain degree of suspicion. It was as if the man had been absorbed and been contaminated by evil as freshly laundered white sheets, hung out to dry, might absorb and be contaminated by polluted air.

Even the children could not shake off the expectation, or was it the perverse unspoken hope, that their uncle Dennie had done something special — was something special. Though of course they knew better. As everyone knew better. As he spoke his eyes darted about the kitchen almost like eyes out of control. He stood in an odd stiff posture, hands gripping the lapels of his suit as if he meant to crush them. The mother, meaning to break the awkward silence, spoke warmly of their satisfaction with the house and the neighborhood, and the father concurred, but the stranger listened only politely, and continued to stare, and stare hard.

The floor tile, the size of the windows, something about the position of the cupboards-all were different. But the sink was in the same place of course;. For a moment it appeared he might ask to be shown the basement, but the moment passed, fortunately-this was not a part of their house the father and mother would have been comfortable showing to a stranger. Finally, making an effort to smile, the stranger said, ''Your kitchen is so-pleasant.

For a moment it seemed he had nothing further to say. Then, ''A-controlled sort of place. My mother-when we lived here-'' His words trailed off into a dreamy silence, and the mother and father glanced at each other with carefully neutral expressions.

On the window sill above the sink were several lushly blooming African violet plants in ceramic pots, and these the stranger made a show of admiring.

Impulsively he leaned over to sniff the flowers-''Lovely! In the next room, the dining room, the stranger appeared to be even more deeply moved. For some time he stood staring, wordless. With fastidious slowness he turned on his heel, blinking, and frowning, and tugging at his lower lip in a rough gesture that must have hurt.

Finally, as if remembering the presence of his hosts, and the necessity for some display of civility, the stranger expressed his admiration for the attractiveness of the room, and its coziness. The stranger exclaimed in surprise. He said, as if thinking aloud, still wonderingly, ''My father was a unique man.

Everyone who knew him admired him. I see you have four place settings, Mrs. Two children, I suppose? The stranger stared not at her but at the table, smiling. The mother said, as if not knowing what else to say, ''Are you-close?

The stranger shrugged, distractedly rather than rudely, and moved on to the living room. This room, cozily lit as well, was the most carefully furnished room in the house. But the stranger said nothing at first. Indeed, his eyes narrowed sharply as if he were confronted with a disagreeable spectacle. He whispered, ''Here too! Author, Joyce Carol Oates, of Where are you Going, Where have you Been alludes to four particular historical references within the story.

When the story is read with an approach, the reader will then have a better understanding. The story, which is described as a mystery and crime narrative, reflects the killing of Charles Schmid.

These Gothic elements typically include gruesome or violent incidents, characters in psychological or physical torment, and strong language full of dangerous meanings. Oates herself is citied as saying that "Horror is a fact of life. While visiting he displays several strange characteristics where he appears to regress into a child. This story examines a world in which normal life is electrified by the potential for sudden change.

Domestic …show more content… The new house owners might be the ghosts of the stranger 's parents, and somehow he has come back to his childhood home as the adult spirit of his former self. He remembers living in the house, with his parents and his sister when he was eleven, this family also has two children: a boy, who is eleven; and a girl, who is thirteen. The reader can sense that there 's a violent past, however, Oates doesn 't explicitly state whether or not there is.

The stranger also has an obsession with riddles, which can be the key to understanding the plot of the story. The part of the story that suggests that the stranger is actually a ghost is when they asked if the stranger 's mother was still alive and he says, "we 've all been dead And then says, " 'Of course This indicates that he had a difficult relationship with his father sometimes; he confides to the new owners, his mother would join him.

These lines suggest that both mother and son and possibly his sister as well were the victims of the masterful father. The basement was not a means of punishment for him as a child but instead a refuge from his abusive father. Curiously, Oates utilizes quotes around the word master, maybe recommending an oppressive father as well as an.

However, looks can be deceiving, as people mask their true selves. Throughout the story the reader sees cracks begin to appear in the thin veneer of civility the parents pretend to maintain, as the husband and wife blame each 3 other for inviting the stranger into their home and allowing him the freedom they have granted him as he explores each room.

They even silently chide themselves and blame each other? It was as if a force of nature, benign at the outset, now uncontrollable, had swept its way into the house! At one point the visitor asks why the couple had two children. Implied here is that a lack of love would result in a violent or fatal end, as may have happened to his sister and him, and perhaps his father as well. Perhaps she killed her husband to escape his abuse.

There is one more very uncomfortable encounter when the visitor talks with their son before the parents finally muster enough courage to kick the stranger out of the house.

Before meeting the son, the stranger spoke of how his mother used to share riddles and philosophical questions with him. But is this just one small glimpse of the violent person that the father truly is? Nonetheless, these riddles may be significant to the stranger who has lived and died and will remain in his current limbo state forever.

Unless he can return to his home and warn them about the consequences of their actions? Perhaps this is why he shows the son how to represent infinity with a square and a series of triangles on a sheet of paper.

Clearly, he is hoping that at least the son sees some significance in his drawing of infinity. Why else would Oates include this scene along with the riddles about mortality and time? This uncomfortable scene serves as the coup de grace, finally shaking the parents from their passive nature, as they ask the stranger to leave. He consents, but oddly, as one last 4 favor he asks permission to sit on the basement stairs, in the dark, for just a few minutes. Perhaps the basement was not a means of punishment for him as a child but instead a refuge from his abusive father.

Regardless, the parents deny his request and shut and lock the door behind the visitor. However, the couple and the house itself have undergone a change because of his appearance. The lights have begun to flicker, the wallpaper and carpet are now dingier, and the husband and wife are beginning to lose their tempers.

Almost as if they are showing their true selves, the ghosts of their former selves who still inhabit this now-decaying house.