Because It Is Bitter, and Because It Is My Heart
by Joyce Carol Oates
- 2 Members Following
Follow a topic to see new activity, such as homework help questions and answers, in your personal feed on the homepage.
Navigate
See Also
- Joyce Carol Oates (Critical Survey of Poetry: American Poets)
- Joyce Carol Oates (Cyclopedia of World Authors, Fourth Revised Edition)
- Joyce Carol Oates (Identities & Issues in Literature)
- Joyce Carol Oates (The Sixties in America)
- Joyce Carol Oates (Critical Survey of Long Fiction, Fourth Edition)
- Joyce Carol Oates (Critical Survey of Short Fiction, Second Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Joyce Carol Oates
- First Published: 1990
- Type of Plot: Psychological realism
- Time of Work: The 1950’s and the early 1960’s
- Setting: A small town in western New York State
- Characters: Little Red Garlock, Iris Courtney, Persia Courtney, Duke Courtney, Jinx Fairchild, Mr. and Mrs. Savage, Alan Savage
- Genres: Long fiction, Novel
- Subjects: 1950's, Civil rights, 1960's, United States or Americans, Racism, Crime or criminals, Murder or homicide, Gender roles, Violence, War, Photography or photographers, Blood, Sports
- Locales: United States, New York, North America
The Novel
Because It Is Bitter, and Because It Is My Heart is divided into three parts and an epilogue. With the exception of the omniscient perspective of part 1, the narrative is presented from the third-person point of view, allowing Oates to explore the perspectives of many different characters.
Because It Is Bitter, and Because It Is My Heart explores the impact of race and class on the formation of identity in America. Oates uses four families to illustrate this: the poor white Garlocks, the struggling black Fairchilds, the ambitious working-class...
(The entire page is 2735 words.)
Want to read the whole thing?
Subscribe now to read the rest of this article. Plus, get access to:
- 30,000+ literature study guides
- Critical essays on more than 30,000 works of literature from Salem on Literature (exclusive to eNotes)
- An unparalleled literary criticism section. 40,000 full-length or excerpted essays.
- Content from leading academic publishers, all easily citable with our "Cite this page" button.
- 100% satisfaction guarantee READ MORE
