Joyce Carol Oates

exorcism, the power to cast out from the creatures of God the evil spirits that have power over them, the power, the authority, to make the great God of Heaven come down upon the altar and take the form of bread and wine. What an awful power Stephen!” (Joyce 171). Within this single passage, the director alluded to power nine separate times and even stated that the priests of the church had power over kings, emperors, and even God himself. “Stephen thus becomes elusive of social or religious…

Adichie’s novel Half of a Yellow Sun is told with true brilliance through her use of pendulum narration, moving from one character narration to the other. The three key narrators of her novel are divergent in every sense – adding to the richness of the books storytelling as their lives interweave through the use of an extradiegetic narration. Ugwu takes us through the life and experiences of an adolescent houseboy coming of age. Olanna shows us the world of a well-educated and privileged woman…

Eveline demonstrates the outcome of a child having lost many loved ones through death or through them leaving her. This causes her to fear change. In the short story "Eveline" James Joyce reveals that the old field symbolizes Eveline 's premature jump into adulthood, the dusty, monotonous house represents her life in the moment and Frank symbolizes a coming change in Eveline 's life, showing Eveline 's deep-rooted fear of change and unwillingness to accept it. The field represents Eveline and…

harsh domestic life rooted in the past and the possibility of a new married life abroad. From the beginning, the anaphora of ‘she sat by the window… she continued to sit at the window’, expounds Eveline’s stagnation and personal loss of identity. Joyce, through Eveline’s characterisation, explicates Ireland’s paralysing psychosis resulting from a struggle in finding its own distinct identity and sense of nationalism after centuries of British imperialism. Eveline’s personal loss with her…

Winter is frequently associated with gloom and depression; it is a strong indicator of the dreary world the boy lives in. According to the narrator, the unnamed boy lives on the “blind” or dead-end North Richmond Street (Joyce). Blindness corresponds with darkness and lack of light, and by James Joyce’s use of “blind” rather than dead-end or cul-de-sac to describe the street contributes to the increasingly dreary mood of the story. Likewise, the house itself has an unwelcoming…

Literature has the amazing ability to convey a culture in different ways. Through the development of Irish culture, literature was able to follow closely behind. Leading this was Jonathan Swift and Antoine Raftery and even though both were widely known, there is a difference in their works and how they influenced authors like W.B. Yeats and Lady Gregory. In order to properly reflect on these differences it is necessary to first provide the respected backgrounds of these authors. To begin,…

The short story “Araby”, James Joyce displays the need for something more than Dublin, and how a world filled with repetition and gloom can create false hope for a breathtaking world. James Joyce illustrates such disillusionment through the eyes of a young Irish boy and his desire for exoticism in “Araby”. The opening paragraphs of the short story portray the demeanor the narrator has toward his life through the setting. The narrator feels as though Dublin is a dark shadow of a city, causing…

In the short story by James Joyce, he presents Gabriel as a husband reflecting on his wife and how much she has changed. Gabriel is a connection to the messenger angel who is probably coming down to give a message to the wife. The author portrays him as realizing the wife is no longer the same women she was when Michael Fury gave his life for her. Also, he reveals that Aunt Julie is soon to die. This idea is presented with the use of imagery, diction, and motif. First of all, the author utilizes…

The short story, “Araby” by James Joyce illustrates a young boys’ unfortunate experience with first love. Throughout “Araby”, Joyce uses many terms which invoke sexual and religious connotations in order to portray the setting and illustrate the boy’s sexual affection for the girl. In addition, religion is a large part of the boy’s way of life but as sexual needs come into play, the boy realizes that his religious form of affection is much different from the normal way of life. Thus, showing him…

around, are those who can compose. James Joyce would be in the middle of a conversation and have stopped to write little phrases and humorous words. He would put the little pieces of paper in his coat as he went through his day as soon as he would get home, he would take them out and use what he needed. Joyce was an astonishing person. He was well known for his brilliantness in composing, poems, songs, books and of course his "dirty letters" for his wife. James Joyce lived an interesting life…