Author's Voice

Carol Joyce Oates is a praised author capable of writing stories that leave readers on the edge of their seat thinking about what happens next. Even as the story comes to a close, her words linger and her readers continue to ponder what they just experienced. Her stories are an experience. Reading her work is not going from one plot point to the next, but delving deep into her words and understanding the world she has created on a deeper level.
One of the most notable examples of her work is Where are you going, Where have you been?. This thriller descends quickly from a fun-loving teenager enjoying her summer to what likely results in a murder. The reader empathizes with Connie and her situation.
To contrast this downward spiral of a plot, Carol Joyce Oates' Heat is one of the darkest ways to approach a child's murder. The unnamed narrator looks back on her past with two twins in her hometown. She describes their young friendship, but quickly shifts the story to discuss the murder of these two girls and their funeral. She looks back on her childhood and how she thought about the events surrounding her at the time.
These two stories focus on the point of view of a young girl. They are put into unimaginable situations and their reactions are explored. Joyce Carol Oates likely draws from experience and uses her own childhood to imagine how a young girl would process such horrid information. These young girls present their emotions to the reader while they go through something that's impossible to compare. Oates has an understanding of the human experience and writes these characters in a way that is relatable despite their circumstances being so far from normal.
Despite their similar structure, Heat focuses on how a young girl dealt with understanding death and realizing that the world is not as happy and carefree as a child might like to believe. Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? surrounds a girl being tested against a horrible event and must react to a life or death situation. Both characters must learn to confront death, but one must do it to survive and the other must learn to survive with it's burden.
The narrator in Heat tells the story by looking back on her past. The events have happened long ago, but they still bother her. She creates her own idea of what happened during her friends' murder. She imagines the details of the worst event that's happened to her all the way down to the way he smelled. She deals with death by attempting to understand it.
These stories have a similar beginning. Oates' puts young girls in a situation they shouldn't be forced to deal with. She analyzes their reactions and puts them on display for the reader. The differences come in the approach and the tone she creates around the story.

http://www.classicshorts.com/stories/heat.html

Living Without Fire

Autumn
By Louise Glück

The part of life
devoted to contemplation
was at odds with the part
committed to action.
*
Fall was approaching.
But I remember
it was always approaching
once school ended.
*
Life, my sister said,
is like a torch passed now
from the body to the mind.
Sadly, she went on, the mind is not
there to receive it.

The sun was setting.
Ah, the torch, she said.
It has gone out, I believe.
Our best hope is that it’s flickering,
fort/da, fort/da, like little Ernst
throwing his toy over the side of his crib
and then pulling it back. It’s too bad,
she said, there are no children here.
We could learn from them, as Freud did.
*
We would sometimes sit
on benches outside the dining room.
The smell of leaves burning.

Old people and fire, she said.
Not a good thing. They burn their houses down.
*
How heavy my mind is,
filled with the past.
Is there enough room
for the world to penetrate?
It must go somewhere,
it cannot simply sit on the surface—
*
Stars gleaming over the water.
The leaves piled, waiting to be lit.
*
Insight, my sister said.
Now it is here.
But hard to see in the darkness.

You must find your footing
before you put your weight on it.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/12/11/autumn

Louise Gluck writes about a person looking for hope and happiness alongside their sister in Autumn. This time in the speaker's life should be easy and relaxed, but instead, they describe not feeling and the pessimistic ideas that have been going through their mind. The speaker relates their sister's ideas to themselves and attempts to find hope for themselves in this piece.
There is an internal battle inside the speaker. The first stanza describes a struggle within themselves. Possibly their own personality fighting a thought or mental illness. They spend their time remaining still and think while they want to experience or do something. They want "action". They also describe "contemplation" as a part of their life, however. It is not something happening to them, but a part of their own experience with life. They don't describe the feelings they have as a result of something, but instead their own feelings and tendencies. They are constantly at odds with themselves.
The speaker clearly looks up to their sister. She acts as a guide. There is a point in the speaker's past that has changed their point of view on the world. They speak about their memories, saying they "remember (fall) was always approaching". When looking at the past, thoughts can become skewed. The speaker's thoughts are likely reflective of the longing they feel for a past that they don't remember. They are nostalgic for something that's missing from their lives. Their sister, likely with similar experiences, must walk them through an unfamiliar experience. There is a commonality between the two of them that they don't have to talk about. Their sister knows what they are going through despite them not knowing how to explain it themselves.
In the third stanza, the poem shifts from their internal thoughts to their sister's thoughts and advice. The poem now focuses on how the speaker interprets their sister's words and relates them to their own thoughts. The analogy of fire is started in this stanza and moves throughout the piece. It symbolizes happiness and livelihood. It is meant to spread and grow, but, as stated in the second stanza, "it has gone out". Their family is left with little fire in it. It's suggesting that the torch is "flickering" similar to a young child losing his toy only to have it brought back to him. Their surroundings are bleak however as there are no children to spread that joy and spark a flame.
The title of this poem, Autumn, symbolizes a close to something. Autumn is a time before winter, it symbolizes a coming end. This could represent an end to the speaker's way of thinking. This is supported by the last stanza that gives the reader hope for the main characters. It could also represent a sorrow approaching. Winter is symbolic of depression and sadness. The poem takes places in the summertime and the speaker is not experiencing life to the fullest. The idea that autumn is coming means that something is coming to either take away or add to her life. It represents a future.
Autumn discusses losing feeling in life. There is the idea constantly that the two characters in the story cannot change their situation. They speak about how aging should deter them farther from the flame which has already been associated with happiness and feeling it. Their future is laid out for them and it is not what they want to see in it. They are accepting how the rest of their life will be. The last stanza discusses hope. It is a change in the tone of the poem that encourages a happy ending. Their sister highlights "insight" as a way to "find your footing". Knowing the things she is sharing is key to being able to overcome the bleakness in the future.