Compare And Contrast Man Crazy And We Were The Mulvaneys

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As an accomplished writer, Joyce Carol Oates has books such as We We’re the Mulvaneys in Oprah Winfrey’s Book Club, is a National Book Award winner, and has written several New York Times best sellers. Early on in her life, she experienced violence and grief through local children who were beaten and sexually abused by their father. This may be why there are themes of sexual, romantic, and familial relationships in her works. Oates is from upstate New York, which is where many of her stories take place, including Man Crazy and We Were the Mulvaneys. Oates's novel Man Crazy tells the life story of Ingrid Boone from her early childhood to her adult life. This includes details about her alcoholic father who would come in and out of her life, to …show more content…

Description is used throughout the book for both settings and characters. She uses indirect and direct characterization to describe both the physical appearance and mental state of the main character, Ingrid Boone. Her use of characterization to develop multi-dimensional characters is exemplified in the line, “An owl-looking matron from the detention center and a sheriff’s deputy, male, sexy in that sag-eyes way turns some women on,” (Man Crazy, 5). Her descriptive style of writing is not only reserved characters, but also carries into the setting. Oates appeals to the senses when depicting settings to provide a realistic experience for the reader. One of the descriptions, “Ford compact dull dishwater-brown to attract no one's suspicious eye, we were off the highway north of Tintern Falls above the river that was coarse and choppy in the wind, and the sky like an enamel table that's been scratched and the dark underside's showing through, and we heard a train whistle, and sat in silence staring at a locomotive and freight cars-- I counted thirty-two-- CHAUTAUQUA & BUFFALO-- BALTIMORE & OHIO-- NEW YORK CENTRAL--thunder past on the wooden trestle that didn't look substantial enough to support them and disappear into the tunnel in Block Hill like a snake disappearing into a hole and the deafening-rattling noise of the freight cars too was

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