Heat (Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Joyce Carol Oates
- First Published: 1989
- Type of Plot: Psychological
- Time of Work: The 1930's
- Setting: A small town in the United States
- Principal Characters: Rhea Kunkel, Rhoda Kunkel, The narrator, Roger Whipple
- Genres: Short fiction
- Subjects: Girls, North America or North Americans, United States or Americans, Murder or homicide, Twentieth century, Guilt, 1930’s, Child abuse, Violence, Death or dying, Small-town life, Fate or fatalism, Life and death, Twins or multiple-birth siblings, Summer, Heat
- Locales: United States
The Story
“Heat” tells the story of the murder of eleven-year-old identical twins, Rhea and Rhoda Kunkel, through the eyes of a childhood friend who is now an adult. Joyce Carol Oates weaves the story together like bursts of heat on a sultry day. The story begins with a reference to the “rippling” heat of the summer day as the girls ride their bicycles toward Whipple's Ice.
In the next scene, the twins are in matching white caskets in a funeral parlor. Again, reference is made to the heat. In a narrative that boarders on stream of consciousness, Oates introduces...
[The entire page is 1415 words long]
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