High school, a stepping stone, a coming of age, a time of change, a time of growing and planning, a time of living and enjoying, a beginning for some and an end or transition for others. Joyce carol oates life after high school takes us to a time in the late 1950s to south lebanon high school and shows us the lives of three people at a time of self discovery. Zachary graff, barbara sunny burhman and tobias shank were three friends and classmates who held secrets and truths between them which no one else in the school or town would discover. Zachary graff a round character was, until about the ninth grade, just an unrecognizable nerdy looking person. Upon graduation, his parents had wanted him to attend muhlenberg college, a church affiliated school, but zachary, who would have been the valedictorian, wanted to go wherever sunny would go. His frame was large and he would move clumsily down the halls of the high school with a gaze on the horizon as if not noticing anyone. Zachary had an eye problem, myopia or nearsightedness, which caused him to have to wear corrective glasses.

His glasses were chunky black plastic frames , which he constantly kept pushing up on his nose for fear they were falling. The boys in zachary's school envied him for his plum colored 1956 plymouth that his family could afford to buy. They felt it seemed to them distinctly unfair that zachary, of all people, had his own car, when so few of them, who loved cars, did. Zachary's father was the town's preeminent physician , so his family had a high standing in this little town with a population of 3,800.

Zachary, a baptized lutheran, and his parents were members of the first lutheran church where they never i. To watch the rest of the staff go through obstacle after obstacle was not only entertaining and informing, but it taught me how teamwork and communication is very important. Firefighters put out fires and help save civilians in life threatening situation. Where are you going, where have you been? notes pre reading: rebels/ bad boys throughout the generations music, movies secret desire/wish/fantasy with which you surprisingly came face to face. The theme of this sorrowful story is teenage sexuality, particularly alternate lifestyle sexuality. In a way, it might be said that the central character barbara sunny burhman serves to focalize the central attention on zachary, which would in a sense make him the protagonist of the story.

The theme of this sorrowful story is teenage sexuality, particularly alternate lifestyle sexuality. He is key to the story because sunny's story is told in broad generalities until her life intersects with zachery's life when he begins to intrude on her notice with his hi, sunny! in confirmation of this structural element, sunny's life is once again covered in broad general strokes her life after high school until she encounters tobias, then he speaks in detail, and he and barbara interact in detail. It is zachary who chiefly presents the thematic element of alternate lifestyle sexuality, though we only know this when, in the protracted epilogue of the story the epilogue that ironically gives the meaning to the title , tobias confides to barbara the secrets he has been hiding since high school.

The story up until now has been barbara's reaction to zachary in the epilogue, she learns what it is exactly that she has been reacting to: zachary's confusion over his life, a confusion that extends outward from his confusion over his alternate sexual preferences. If one were to try to make a statement of oates thesis that underlies life after high school, the best summary statement of her thesis would be found in zachary's last letter: to whom it may or may not concern: i, zachary a. Graff, being of sound mind amp body, do hereby declare that i have taken my own life of my own free will amp i hereby declare all others guiltless as they are ignorant of the death of the aforementioned amp the life. Graff the line pertinent to a thesis statement to embody oates purpose in writing is they are ignorant of. From this, one might deduce that a representative thesis statement might be: while outward appearances give a shadow of the identity of an individual, each inner person is veiled beneath an opaque shield that darkens the truth of love and desire that lies in secret within.

Sunny stared up at him, for an instant mute, paralyzed, seeing not zachary graff's eyes but the lenses of his glases which appeared, in the semidark, opaque. In the short story life after high school by joyce carol oates, please give details and examine all the causes you can think of that led zachary to commit a suicide? high school is often regarded as the most important stage in life of young school going adults. It has been evident over the years that most of the decisions that a person make while in high school have a great impact later in their lives. The book takes the reader back into the 1950’s to a south lebanon high school, which is the school of three of the main characters: zachary graff, barbara sunny burhman and tobias shank. What really happens after school? can it be discussed in the affirmative that what a person does during high school has an impact to what happens to them after school? the paper will look into the developments in the story and how they contributed to what happened to zachary after school.

In particular, the plots of the story chosen for this paper will show how the decisions a person makes in school have a huge brunt on what life they will lead afterwards. It will show how a friendship based on secrecy can brew trouble if not handled properly by the parties oates 40. Zachary from the onset of the story can be described just as a young nerdy lad who was not that noticeable by his fellow students. He had all the characteristics of the student that is described as weird and is generally feared by his peers –basically mere stereotyping because they have no idea what he is capable of doing. However he had a car which made him the envy of many in fact people wondered why he of all people had to own a car. He was a christian, and was the president and an active member of some of the school clubs. For a person who was not popular in school, he pretty much had his life cut for him.

On the other hand, sunny was very different, she had the most radiant and astonishing smile in fact her teacher nicknamed her sunny just because of this. She was a member of the newspaper, magazine and honor society that zachary was a member. The fact that zachary and sunny met in most of these places made him very fond of her, and eventually he developed feelings for her. zachary had a friend, tobias shank, with whom he shared most of his deep secrets including religious matters. Zachary started spending time with sunny discussing issues relating to religion and during such discussions, zachary felt that he had the full attention of sunny just the way he wanted. Eventually zachary could not hide it anymore and he decided to show his love to sunny. He withdrew half of his college savings –he had kept the savings for almost ten years and he bought her a ring.

He thought this to be a decent gesture and did not see how sunny who he had come to be fond of could reject his show of love to her. It was an awful way of ending his life just because he did not see the point of living if he cannot be with sunny. It was a selfish act that saw sunny blame herself for the untimely demise of zachary. She held herself responsible as she knew zachary had killed himself because she rejected him. Her name sunny that was given to her because of her radiant smile was not appropriate to her anymore so she thought. She never spoke to anyone about zachary’s death for the fear that it may spur more guilt towards her.

She enrolled in a different school altogether where she went ahead to become an excellent student. She went to harvard, taught at great institutions of learning earned good money and was even politically outspoken. She became a successful writer of numerous books and a good mother of three children. She did not want to encounter anyone who would remind her of her high school days and more importantly someone who would remind her about zachary and his death. She held herself responsible for his death, even though according to me she shouldn’t have.

Life After High School Joyce Carol Oates Essays Text

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