Literary Analysis Essay on Faithless

Introduction

"Faithless" is a tale of transgression encompassing a collection of twenty-one short stories where Joyce Carol Oates makes brisk incisions into the mysterious private lives of women and men. Throughout her workpiece, she successfully explores the personal lives of men and women with much vivid, sympathy, and unsparing precision. Also, the author Joyce Carol Oates dissects the ordinary men and women psyches concerning good and evil through various turns of being magician, realist, interlocutor, and interpreter. The collection of twenty-one short stories enclosed in the "Faithless" presents a wide range of themes such as female passion, terror, loneliness, the collapse of male identity, among others, which are brought out through the various characters of a different gender. The twenty-one short stories collection workpiece ambiguously entitled "Faithless" can be well interpreted as a lack of religious faith or marital infidelity divided into three distinct sections. The first section entails short stories depicting vengeance perpetrated by females on their lovers for having parted from them. The short stories in the second section exhaust family relationship, especially between mother and daughter and lastly the third section short stories present social issues such as capital punishment, mass killers who are teenagers, and stalking. The separate three sections' effectiveness is realized through the efficient utilization of both male and female characters to depict the range of issues as per the author's intent. The paper is, therefore, premised on the role of gender in "Faithless," authored by Joyce Carol Oate.

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To begin with, the author brings out moral degradation through the female gender. Traditionally, sexual relationships are meant for married couples where, in most cases, the man is older than the woman. However, some short stories in Oate's "Faithless" presents disconcerting sexual relationships, which mainly develops between troubled young men and much older women. The short story "questions" is a typical example that brings out how women experience some decline in their physical age, and for that reason, they act out in a sexual manner considered to be audacious. In the story, a professor involves herself in a sexual affair with her 20-year old student, something considered outrageously absurd. Equally, the short story "Murder two," where a high profile lawyer gets sexually attracted to a young boy who is her client, depicts moral degradation perpetrated by the female gender.

Secondly, the theme of violence and acts of aggression are brought out through the male gender. Violence or acts of aggression in most cases are associated with masculinity. The author presents the story with much coherency with the existing norms and way of life by attaching acts of aggression or violence to masculinity. For instance, in "Faithless," a short story "Tusk" reveals how a store clerk got killed by a teenage boy. Moreover, a man is depicted to be hunting his ex-wife all over with a riffle in the short story "The Vigil." The short story "A Manhattan Romance" in Oate's "Faithless" portrays a wealthy father who blows his brain out leaving his daughter fatherless. In addition to that, in the story, 'Murder Two,' a boy kills his mother. It is depicted with no doubt that the male gender is the one perpetrating acts of aggression and violence in the society, and in the end, run the victims are women and children. On equal measure, the human weakness of irrational judgment is brought out through the male characters. That is seen when the acts of aggression are spearheaded by the males without critically examining whether it is necessary to carry out such acts, which eventually results in deaths. Violence is shown as the key role of the male gender in this book as they menacingly kill. However, the author also presents certain acts of violence initiated by the females' characters in some of the short stories in the first section of the book. Situations where females dumped by lovers seek vengeance through acts of violence.

Lastly, Oate's "Faithless" collection story depicts the betraying role of both genders. The fact that both men and women engage in activities that conflict with their expected roles or mandate. The last three stories expound on the crucial role of betrayal. A newspaper reporter specializes in death row executions yet the society sees him as a genuine being with virtues. The characters portray his/her betrayal to nature by indulging himself in death cases. Apart from that, a police officer rapes Abner Louima, an undercover television reporter, in a Brooklyn Station House. This is absurd as the person entrusted with the sole mandate of protection of citizens against any harm is the beast who preys on the civilians and rapes them, depriving them of their dignity. Relatively, a woman leaves her family and chooses to be with another man. The woman leaves behind two young girls who are forced to start a new life with no mother to confide in as well as take care of the family as naturally expected. These examples reveal how both male and female gender deviates from the expected roles and engages in activities which are contemptuous betraying their expected purpose in life.

Conclusion

In summary, transformation in gender roles is probably the most significant one among the various transformations which have characterized modern society. The concept of masculinity and femininity, the expected roles of each gender, and stereotypes associated with particular sex have been altered and revised by people in modern society today. In the past, women were naturally entitled to the role of the upbringing of children and family. Women were supposed to cook or prepare meals as well as overall care of children in the family until they become of age, ready to constitute their own families. However, in the title story "Faithfulness," the long-suffering husband remains with the mantle of the upbringing of the two daughters after having killed his wife when attempting to leave him. The man does not remarry and brings up his two daughters from childhood to adulthood without the help of any woman beside him. Moreover, the author deviates from the norm by depicting vengeance through femininity. Acts of aggression coupled with a vengeance are considered to be initiated by males and exemplary absurd to be perpetrated by females. The females who are obsessed with firearms especially gun and those seeking vengeance for having been dumped by their lovers depicts how massive gender roles have evolved. The title of the collection story constituting of twenty-one stories is relevant in that both the female and male gender exhibit some sense of faithless brought out through Joyce Carol Oate's in-depth explorations into their private lives.