Rhetoric Study = Imagery to the max!

Oates does an amazing job of putting an emence amount of detail into almost every page. I got a really good visual of all of the characters and events that happened. She makes the reader feel as if they were there, witnessing or being raped, which sends the reader into the same dark corner as Marianne is put in. There is also a whole chapter called "Family Code" where Oates has the Mulvaney's using their pets to talk through. So, in a way, the pets come to life, and recieve human characters (not exactly personification, because the animals are living... but most animals, (at least the ones on the farm) can't speak in the same language humans do) but the Mulvaney's give them human traits.

"His eyes lifted shyly to hers. The heavy lids, the narrow bridge of the nose, the lank hair fallen onto his forehead. His skin looked grainy, as in an old photograph... Music pounded and pulsed threw the walls" (Oates 77).
This is a passage from the incident itself. It describes Zachary Lundt right before the rape, and his "heavy lids" refer to him being intoxicated. As seen in movies, when was drinks, or get dizzy, everything starts going in circles and pictures become messed up, "grainy", Music so loud, it was heard and "pulsed" threw the walls.


"Suddenly his little boat was in rough, unfriendly waters. Storm winds, heaving waves spinning him out of control" (Oates 382)."
This passage is talking about Michael Mulvaney's life, on the hospital bead. It's actually interesting that Oates is just now calling his little boat (his life) rocky and out of control, because its been slowly spinning out of control for quite some time. His life has gotten to a point where he can't just run away from everything and he now has to face what is going on. These "heaving waves" are his issues coming back, making him deal with the past. The boat is little, because he has shut everyone out and he only has himself, no one else. The sad part is, is that he did this to himself. Not necessarily gave himself cancer, but he abandoned his family. It was his decision, no one else's. He also pretty much drank himself sick, causing his liver and his body to shut down. Threw out the book, Oates has Michael's character portray a dark, un-warming side. His physical and mental features are easily understood due to her way of expressing his character, and his characteristics.

"On Michael's last day at High Point Farm he'd tramped about the property, alone. He saw a half dozen deer grazing in the back pasture, drifting into the orchard. He saw that the pond had become so shallow, chocked with cattails and rushes, it was hardly more than a declivity in the earth. And what a rank-rotting odor lifted from death by dogs, only a part of the carcass remaining" (Oates 386).
If this doesn't put a picture in your head, I'm not sure what will. When I sit here and read this passage, I can see the deer running in the pasture, and the pond covered in cattails. My nose cringes and the smell of the dead dogs, making me reach over to grab mine, knowing she is still alive. Oates connects with the reader, and makes them feel lucky for what they have.

Through out the book, there are many lines just like the following:
"Look, you know you want to. Why'd you come with me if you don't? Nobody's gonna hurt you for Christ's sake get cool!" (Oates 87).
These lines are just bits a pieces from the actual rape. What Zachary says to Marianne. This, in a way, lets the reader understand the tone of voice, by the way its written, and just exactly was said in the car before the incident. Again, Oates does a funaminal job making the reader feel as though they were a witness, or even the victim, hopefully reaching out to the reader to let them know that this is not okay, and the life long effects it can have on someone.