Literary Analysis “Life After High School” Essay

The short study, sustenance After High School by Joyce Carol Oates, is set in the sm either town of S let outh Lebanon, New York in 1959. The first trey quarters of the stage is the tragic tale of one-sided spot where Zachary Graff, the level-headed but socially awkward teenager falls in tell a partially with Sunny Burhman, the attractive and best-selling(predicate) girl that everyone adores. She decimates his proposal and he arset take it and decides to take his own life. Later, we find out his satisfying delight in was Tobias, his one friend. His love for Sunny was his last way to converge in with the norms of society. Oates shows us the intertwined lives of three high groom students and the paths taken to throw in the towel themselves of the entrapment of their uncomfortable 1950s effected lifestyles.Barbara Sunny Burhman is k without delayn as the popular too good to be true Christian girl in the story. She was everything the perfect, all Ameri burn 1950s girl was supposed to be. In the starting line of the story she is referred to as Sunny because her 6th grade teacher suggested traffic her this because of her sunny personality. Tell you what, boys and girls lets call Barbara Sunny from now on thats what she is (Oates 512). Sunnys freedom came by Zachary victorious his own life. The irony had not escaped Barbara Burhman that, in casting apart his young life so recklessly, Zachary Graff had freed her for hers (Oates 518). She drops the name Sunny and just goes by Barbara Burhman. When she goes off to school she excels in college and solely works on academics. She drops all the Sunny aspects of her life that trapped her and she became a prestigious teacher and author. on that target was no place for an agnostic lively male like Tobias Shanks in a 1950s small town high school and he is forced to lead his life in secrecy. After Zacharys remnant Tobias Shanks secret is safe from his fellow high school students. Tobias, like Barbara, cha nges his name by and by high school and goes by T.R. Shanks. unconnected Barbara, the author doesnt let us know Tobias exactpoint of his freedom from the restrictions of the 50s lifestyle, but it does come. It possibly comes after the ever-changing sequences of the 60s and 70s. T.R. is able to come out and find his place in the world as a gay man. He goes on to become a successful playwright and theatre director winning many awardsOates leads us to swear that in the beginning of the story Zachary is a typical awkward intellectual that falls in love with the perfect girl in his high school. In reality, his true love is his one friend Tobias, but the constraints of the 1950s lifestyle led Zachary to believe that Sunny was his perfect choice. Up until death Zachary was conflicted. When both Sunny and Tobias reject him, death seems his only way to freedom. Oates gives some additional insight closely Zacharys thoughts by telling the reader the contents of his car after his suicide. The author, by her quirky ending, left it up to the reader to decide that Zachary whitethorn have contemplated other scenarios that possibly wouldnt have been appropriate with the 50s perfect life style. In Zacharys suicide job he takes responsibility and releases all parties of any guilt. This suggests that he did feel labored by the 50s lifestyle to the very end.Oates writes a story about three high school students of the 1950s that students of today can empathize with. Although there still may be other issues of acceptance, the time period in which the story is placed was an especially conservative time. Suicide, homosexuality, and women playing important roles in society outside the home were not part of the social norm of the 50s. Today these issues are much more accepted. Oates shows us the intertwined lives of three students and the paths taken to free themselves of the entrapment of their uncomfortable 1950s conventional lifestyles.