A Literary Analysis Of Black Water By Joyce Carol Oates

Joyce Carol Oates has been a literary genius, which is one of the many reasons I decided to go to her event at Clowes Auditorium. I have also recently read her book, Black Water, which was an interesting read. It was a fictional telling of the Chappaquiddick Scandal that had happened several years before I was born. One the aspects of Black Water I particularly appreciated was that she took a real life event and created a fictional story around it. At this reading, on September 28 2015, she read from her new book, entitled The Lost Landscape. This entire book is written about Oates’s growing up and becoming the writer she is today. This book contains interesting third person point of view authors telling the childhood of Joyce Carol Oates.
As a reader of one of her books it was very interesting to hear even a small portion of her childhood. As I have stated before I picked this event due to the fame of Joyce Carol Oates. Near the beginning of her speech she stated “I have been writing more than most people have been alive” and I think that speaks to the quantity of her writing. However, all of the multitudes of books she has written they have all been meet with kind reviews. This event was my first literary event and to be able to go and listen an author as respected as Joyce Carol Oates was an appealing idea. I have also always wanted to read her book, We Were the Mulvaneys, but I have unfortunately have never been able to find the time to do so. However, her book Black Water was an amazing book that focused on a female protagonist being abandoned by her new male lover. Being able to read her fictional adaptation of that event was almost like I was there for that time when this occurred. It was almost like I was able to live vicariously through the characters and their bad decisions. An author that is able to transport you to another world is a person worth listening to. Also, by reading only one book I know that she is an interesting person. She was able to put many different ideas and controversies about this scandal and turn it into a novella while still allowing readers to fully experience the entire event. I wanted to be able to hear her input on her writing process and see exactly who is writing these books. I found out that she is surprisingly funny and she was often making jokes in the middle of her reading. At point she related her pet chicken to Donald Trump, which was both hilarious and unexpected. The section of her book that she read out loud, The Lost Landscape, was about growing up on a farm. Throughout this chapter there were many mentions to how her family, especially her grandparents, eventually passed away. The inclusion of later events being intertwined with events that took place during childhood was interesting. The narrator of this chapter was not herself, as one may expect a memoir to be written, however, it was in the point of view of pet chicken. When Oates was growing up she raised many chickens and one of her chickens inadvertently become her pet. As Oates explained after she was finished reading, it is difficult for a female child protagonist to explore dark themes. Oates felt that a chicken’s point of view would be able to explore more concepts about her childhood because she did not think it was appropriate for a female child character to develop those ideas herself at such a young age. Oates even explained that throughout the book there are several different narrators telling stories that Oates felt appropriate. One of the questions I found to be particularly relatable to what I was thinking about Oates’s novels, is why she picks her topics.
After reading Black Water, I thought about why she would pick a topic like a senator leaving a girl to drown. When she was answering this question she began with saying that she likes to write about real events, but with fictional characters. Also, most of her stories seem to be about woman being treated poorly by the patriarchy. This was the case in Black Water, where the main female protagonist was left to drown to Joyce Carol Oates has been a literary genius, which is one of the many reasons I decided to go to her event at Clowes Auditorium. I have also recently read her book, Black Water, which was an interesting read. It was a fictional telling of the Chappaquiddick Scandal that had happened several years before I was born. One the aspects of Black Water I particularly appreciated was that she took a real life event and created a fictional story around it. This type of writing is similar to historical fiction, however, the subject matter she addresses in her books differ from typical historical fiction books’ subject matter. At this reading, on September 28 2015, she read from her new book, entitled The Lost Landscape. This entire book is written about Oates’s growing up and becoming the writer she is today. This book contains interesting third person point of view authors telling the childhood of Joyce Carol Oates. As a reader of her work
it was very interesting to hear even a small portion of her childhood. As I have stated before, I picked this event due to the fame of Joyce Carol Oates. Near the beginning of her speech she stated “I have been writing more than most people have been alive” and I think that speaks to the quantity of her writing. However, many people who create anything as much as Oates has a decline in the quality of their work. Oates, I believe, is a rare exception. She has written a plethora books with all of them being considered extraordinary. Also, I have also always wanted to read her book, We Were the Mulvaneys, but I have unfortunately have never been able to find the time to do so. I have read small passages for classes, but I have not read the book in its entirety. However, her book Black Water was an amazing book that focused on a female protagonist being abandoned by her new male lover, who was a United States senator. Being able to read her fictional adaptation of that event was as if I was there during the time when this scandal occurred. It was almost like I was able to live vicariously through the characters and their bad decisions. An author that is able to transport you to another world is a person worth listening to. Also, by reading only one book I know that she is an interesting person. Only a certain type of person would be drawn to write about a politician’s personal scandal while also addressing issues that she disagreed with during that time period. That type of writing requires a person who is able to plan about how everything will fit together without the book seeming too disjointed. Also, she was able to write about a girl drowning, include events from the entire day, and provide backstories for the two main characters within 154 pages. She was able to deliver an emotional punch to her audience by the end of the novella while evoking emotions about problems like disagreeing with your parents and heartbreak within 154 pages, which is impressive. Due to this powerful writing, I wanted to be able to hear her input on her writing process and see exactly how she thinks through the writing process. An interesting trait I learned through this event is that Oates is surprisingly funny and she was often making jokes in the middle of her reading. At point she related her pet chicken to Donald Trump, which was both hilarious and unexpected. The section of her book that she read out loud, The Lost Landscape, was about growing up on a farm. Throughout this chapter there were many mentions to how her family, especially her grandparents, eventually passed away. The inclusion of later events being intertwined with events that took place during childhood was interesting, especially given the narrator of this chapter. The narrator of this chapter was not herself, as one may expect a memoir to be written, however, it was in the point of view of pet chicken. When Oates was growing up she raised many chickens and one of her chickens inadvertently become her pet. As Oates explained after she was finished reading, it is difficult for a female child protagonist to explore dark themes. Oates felt that a chicken’s point of view would more appropriate to explore more concepts about her childhood because she did not think it was appropriate for a female child character to develop those themes herself at such a young age. This chapter was when Oates was four years old and having a four year old discuss the future deaths of her family would have been too dark. Oates even explained that throughout the book there are several different narrators telling stories that Oates felt appropriate. One of the questions I found to be particularly relatable to what I was thinking about Oates’s novels, is why she picks her topics. After reading Black Water, I thought about why she would pick a topic like a senator leaving a girl to drown. When she was answering this question she began with saying that she likes to write about real events, but with fictional characters. Another common theme about her work is a woman being treated poorly by the patriarchy or a male character. This was the case in Black Water, where the main female protagonist was left to drown to death by the man she had spent the day with and had feelings for. Even when she was reading her new story there were many mentions to the same female versus patriarchy struggle. In the chapter she read she mentioned how “anything a hen did is so insignificant no one paid attention”. Even barn animals that Oates and her family depended on did not care what the hens did. I thought this was an interesting way to bring up the same problem she usually includes in her writing, but do so in a different and more subtle way. Another interesting part of her books is that usually when the book ends with the female protagonist triumphing over the patriarchy she struggled with. In Black Water, I kept assuming she was going to find a way to free herself, however she does not. In the end Kelly dies. In fact those are the last words in the book, “she died” (Oates, 154). She drowns to death because she was not able to save herself and in fact kept believing that she did not have to save herself and her new lover would save her. I believe that is very different than other novels that are written. Most novels have stereotypical, nice endings. If you look at Thousands Splendid Suns, a tragic novel, there is a happy ending when in comparison to the rest of the book. Laila and her one true love are able to live happily ever after. Oates’s books often have tragic endings that are refreshing in the genre she is writing in. As this was my first literary event I have ever been to I had very little expectations for this event.
Overall, I thought it was structured well and allowed for people to both hear Oates read her own work and ask her questions about her life. Audience members asked a range of questions that attempted to gauge at how Oates writes and thinks while she is writing. One person asked her about her experiences with boxing because she had written essays on boxing. She had stated that she went to matches with her father and was able to watch boxing her entire life. She currently does not follow boxing, however, insisted that it would be interesting to write about it again. If I had to change anything, I would allow for a longer question and answer time. Question time is when the audience members are able to learn more about the author. Many of the questions asked were questions that discussed her writing style and her topics and it was unique to have the author explain her literary choices in front of
you.