TOW Assignment - "They All Just Went Away"

For my TOW, I read "They All Just Went Away"by Joyce Carol Oates. Joyce is an accomplished author, having published over 40 books as well as plays, short stories, poetry, and non-fiction. She has won a National Book Award, two Pulitzer Prizes, two O. Henry Awards, and a National Humanities Award. She is currently a professor at Princeton University. This essay is about the fleeting of childhood, and about her neighbor's family. The audience is any young adult or older, especially those who have just left home to start a life of their own. Joyce Oates recalls many childhood memories, describing how quickly it all went by, and how clearly she can remember it all even now. She also begins to tell of her neighbor's family, the Weidels. She explains how unusual they were in comparison to her own family. She also tells of how she became friends with the daughter, Ruth. The author tried to help Ruth in her own little ways, and wanted to make her happier. Joyce Carol Oates uses a lot of imagery, description, and flashbacks throughout the story. The flashback allows her to tell stories of her past. The imagery is used well to create an illustration of her experiences for the audience. One example of this is: "A startled buzzing of flies, hornets. The slithering, ticklish, sensation of a garter snack crawling across floorboards"(Oates 1). The author's purpose was to demonstrate the feeling of a loneliness and feeling detached. She also showed how stepping into people's lives can really help them. The author accomplishes this purpose by explaining that she was a lonely child herself. She describes her friendship with Ruth Weidel, and explains how she was able to be her friend and make her feel like she was a part of something. By describing her relationship with Ruth, she was able to demonstrate how a little can go a long way.