An Ethical Origin
Writers have always drawn inspiration from real events for their stories. Joyce Carol Oates is now being criticized as unethical for just that. The critics claim that it was not ethical for Oates to use the events that befell John Fiocco Jr. in her story "Landfill", and also for including many similarities between Fiocco and her main character Hector Campos Jr.. Though there are some similarities between the two, the differences were great enough that only some who knew of the Fiocco case. Because of this, Joyce Carol Oates' decision to use Fioccos' death as a fictional basis was ethical.
The sad story is still mostly a mystery because of the ongoing investigation, and both the police and autopsy report were withheld from the public. What is known, is that a nineteen-year-old freshman at The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) named John Fiocco Jr. was reported missing from his dormitory on March 25th 2006 after drinking. Police reported finding blood (that was later identified as belonging to Fiocco) around a dumpster outside of his dormitory. It was never made clear if it had any connection to the trash chute above, but his body was recovered at the Bucks County landfill in Pennsylvania. (Landfill Isn't About Fiocco)
"Landfill" is loosely based on what happened to John Fiocco Jr.. It is a story of a nineteen year old college freshman at Michigan State University at Grand Rapids. He is a struggling student that tries extremely hard to fit in with the fraternity he joined. He is hazed and bullied, and on the night of march twenty-fifth, while heavily intoxicated, he falls down a trash chute at his fraternity house. A few weeks later, his body is discovered at the Tioga County landfill. (Oates)
The family of John Fiocco Jr., classmates, and other critics called Oates unethical for publishing her story in the New Yorker. Though the family has good reason to be upset because they were still grieving their loss when the story was published, using the event as an idea for "Landfill" was in no way unethical. In comparison, September 11th was felt by the entire nation and while all their families were still mourning, books and even movies were made about it. Even if they are not similar events, it shows that no matter what happens, writers will always draw ideas for their stories from real life and in this case, Oates acknowledged that she had read newspaper articles regarding the John Fiocco Jr.
The Lowry Landfill Superfund Site is located in Arapahoe County, Colorado, approximately 2 miles east of Aurora. It consists of approximately 507 acres of waste disposal area and is operated by Waste Management of Colorado, Inc. The land surrounding the site consists of native prairie grass and a wetland located along a local creek. Sections around the site are zoned for agricultural use including cattle grazing and non-irrigated wheat farms. 1 The area is home to numerous endangered species including the bald eagle and peregrine falcon. Due to the large amounts of wastes disposed on the site between 1965 and 1980, it became extremely contaminated with a variety of inorganic and organic contaminants. From 1984 to 1993, the EPA oversaw remedial investigation and feasibility studies that were performed by all responsible parties. Since its listing as a superfund site in 1984, multiple remedial actions have been performed in order to rehabilitate the site. These include clay barrier walls around the site, a groundwater collection system, a soil cover for the main landfill, as well as a landfill gas collection system. Groundwater that is collected on the site is treated at an onsite water treatment facility. In 2007, construction began on an onsite gas to energy plant that utilizes the methane produced by the landfill site. The electricity produced by the plant is enough to power 3000 households. 1 Today, use of land and groundwater on and near the site is still restricted by the state of Colorado.1
In early December 1989, while scavenging for scrap metal along a dirt road close to the Volusia County Florida section of Interstate 75, two young men stumbled upon a body with severely decomposed hands wrapped in a rubber backed carpet runner. The victim had been shot 3 times with a 22. Because of the sever decomposition of the victims hands it would take some time to identify the victim as Richard Malloy, an electronic repairman who had gone missing 13 days prior.
Well, one thing that one must take into consideration is the author's aim. As quoted by Timothy J. Lomperis at a conference, O'Brien has said, "'For me, the purpose of writing fiction is to explore moral quandaries. The...
On April 28, 2004, after closing on his dream house, William McGuire was brutally murdered. His body was severed into three pieces, placed into three matching Kenneth Cole suitcases and then dumped in the Chesapeake Bay. The investigation of his murder would span three years, involve two different investigative teams and end in the conviction of his wife, Melanie McGuire, based on circumstantial evidence (Glatt, 2008).
The following day, a fisherman was at the Treeland Blvd. pond when he spotted some stuff floating in the water. Upon closer inspection he noticed it was firefighters gear and figured something must be wrong since firefighters do not just leave their equipment. The police had the pond drained and found a green Chevy truck at the bottom. Inside the truck was a substantial amount of blood; when the blood was tested it was that of Brandy Hall. The amount of blood in the cab of the truck makes it unlikely she will be found alive. The woods around the pond were also searched but nothing more was found.
Two detectives were assigned to the case: Harry Hanson and Finis Brown. [2] When they and the police arrived at the crime scene, it was already swarming with people, gawkers and reporters. The entire situation was out of hand and crowded, everyone trampling all over any hopes for good evidence. [2] One thing they did report finding was a nearby cement block with watery blood on it, tire tracks and a heel print on the ground. There was dew under the body so they knew it had been set there just after 2 a.m. when temperatures dropped to 38 degrees.
O'Brien's writing style is so vivid, the reader frequently finds himself accepting the events and details of this novel as absolute fact. To contrast truth and fiction, the author inserts reminders that the stories are not fact, but are mere representations of human emotion incommunicable as fact.
Tim O'Brien invents stories to accomplish specific messages to readers. O'Brien shares a war story with readers about a baby buffalo, during the beginning he states that the story has been told many times and is indeed factual. The story is about one of the soldiers known as Rat Riley, he is then said to have nonchalantly murdered a baby buffalo without reason. O'Brien's analysis on Riley's heinous behavior is that war led him to kill the baby buffalo because war is hell. Riley uses the mammal as a way of releasing burdens that the war's negativity has put upon him, but then O'Brien divulges to the reader the story's invalidness when an outsider misunderstands the story's gist. "she wasn't listening...no Rat Riley. No trail junction. No baby buffalo. No vines or moss or white blossoms. Beginning to end, you tell her, it's all made up. Every goddamn detail- the mountains and the river and especially that poor dumb baby buffalo. None of it happened. None of it"(85). O'Brien prevaricated on Rat Riley's dark encounter with a baby buffalo because he wants his l...
According to Mr. Rignall's story, a plump man with a flashy car had approached him. The man invited him to join him in the vehicle to smoke some marijuana. Once in the car the man pushed chloroform soaked handkerchief into Rignall's face and drove him, unconscious, to a house where he was beaten with whips and raped. Rignall regained consciousness then next morning where he had been dumped in Lincoln Park.
Tony Frescaz was found dead in his Nissan GTR last night around 7 p.m. His neighbor became suspicious when he wasn’t blaring his favorite country music like he does after soccer practice, every single day. His mouth was covered in some mac and cheeto dust, which he was eating before he died. He had bruises all over his neck, so it is most likely he died, due to strangulation. Police searched his room to see if there was anything to suggest why he was murdered, but all they could find was several posters of cheetahs , ripped up in a garbage sack, and an opened acceptance letter to Texas A&M. AFter searching his vehicle, they found many nike shoe boxes, and a musty cowboys jersey. They were able to find an unfamiliar set of fingerprints on his
O’Brien’s techniques of blurring the lines between fact and fiction were fair. The author wrote this story as a memoriam of his experiences in the Vietnam war. The author wrote what felt right to him, he wanted to honor the fallen soldiers and honor his time spent in the war. In fact I think him lacing truth and deceit together is as close of an experience that a non war veteran will get of the war. If the book was strictly factual it wouldn’t have the element of the psychological feelings of the war, just the physical aspect.
Imagine yourself in the middle of a rainforest, listen to the sounds around you, smell the fresh air, hear the wildlife; take that image and get rid of the trees around you, the sounds of wildlife, and the smell of fresh air. Instead of a rainforest you are now in the middle of a seemingly endless sea of trash and waste. The fresh scent in the air gone, the sprawling land of greenery and trees gone, and the sounds of the forest is reduced to the sound of heavy machinery trying vainly to reduce trash into smaller more compact waste.
O’Brien subjectifies truth by obscuring both fact and fiction within his storytelling. In each story he tells there is some fuzziness in what actually happened. There are two types of truths in this novel, “story-truth” and “happening-truth” (173). “Happening-truth” is what happened in the moment and “story-truth” is the way the storyteller reflects and interprets a situation. O’Brien uses these two types of truths to blur out the difference between fact and fiction. For example, when Rat Kiley tells a story he always overexaggerates. He does this because “he wanted to heat up the truth, to make it burn so hot that you would feel exactly what he felt,” (85). This is the same for most storytellers, even O’Brien. When he tells the story of Norman Bowker he makes his own truth stating, “He did not freeze up or lose the Silver Star for valor. That part of the story is my own” (154). Not everything that O’Brien said was fact, however, it made the the meaning of the story effective and significant. O’Brien reveals that he never killed a man after devoting a whole short story to “The Man I Killed.” When his daughter asks “Daddy, tell the truth, did you ever kill anybody?” he can honestly say “Of course not,” or “Yes,” (172). This illustrates the subjectivity of truth, how both truths can in fact be true. This goes for all the stories told in this novel, the truth is held in the storyteller 's
O’Brien gives the reader an example of a true war story when he tells of the soldier that jumped on a grenade to save his friends however the grenade took all their lives away. On page 61, O'Brien states that this is a true war story that never happened. This is a true war story because it fits his criteria about how a war story should be but the story never actually happens. This is a true war story because it is sad because shows loss despite the soldier’s effort to save his
Landfills. The first thing that might come to one’s head is an ugly, vast pile of trash. The reality is landfills are actually very complicated and useful structures. The U.S. has tripled its trash production since 1960. Americans alone generate 4.6 pounds of trash per day per person. This comes up to an astounding 275 million tons of trash per year. 55% of this trash ends up in landfills across the country. On that note, the U.K. relies on them so heavily, that they use them for 90% of their solid waste. If it wasn’t for landfills, trash would be virtually lining the streets. Landfills are complex and varying structures that greatly benefit society. The question is: what exactly is a landfill?