Joyce Carol Oates's 'We Were The Mulvaneys'

Sometimes being the little guy can cause a person to notice the scarier parts of life. As for Judd Mulvaney, this is very true. In her novel, We Were the Mulvaneys, Joyce Carol Oates characterizes Judd as a reflective young boy through her use of indirect and direct characterization, selection of detail, and repetition.
Initially, the reader sees a young boy taking a break from his bike ride to gape at a brook near his house. As Judd stares into the water, Oates describes him as "hypnotized and scared." The water leaves him "immobile" as he begins to sink into his thoughts. Judd, as the speaker, begins by illustrating how "the water gets slower and you're the one who begins to move." The way that Judd becomes mesmerized by the brook shows how he becomes nervous at the thought of moving beyond his control. Judd animates the "ONEtwothree" of his heartbeat and shares that his mind says "Every heartbeat is past and gone." Not only does this indirect characterization allow the reader to see how Judd thinks, but also Oates' later use of direct characterization literally tells the
Judd begins to connect his thoughts to things that he knows. When Judd talks about how "on a farm, living things are dying, dying, dying all the time and others are born taking their places," the reader notices that Judd reflects on life and death in his mind. His mind repeats "Ever heartbeat is past and gone!," as he makes those connections. While Judd's mind races from life to death and life to death, his dad and brother interrupt him, say a few words, "and next second they were past." As Judd watches his loving father and adored brother drive away, his mind refocuses and says, "Them, too. All of them. Every heartbeat is past and gone." Oates adds in the small encounter to reveal to the reader hos Judd, as young as he may be, stands reflective on his