Of the widow's countless death-duties there is really just one that matters: on the first anniversary of her husband's death the widow should think I kept myself alive.
Joyce Carol OatesRead
A mouth of no distinction but well practiced, before I entered my teens, in irony. For what is irony but the repository of hurt? And what is hurt but the repository of hope?
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects on the complexity of irony and how it intertwines with human emotions like hurt and hope.
Joyce Carol Oates explores the dual nature of irony in this quote, suggesting that while irony can often seem trivial or indistinct, it carries deeper emotional weight. The 'repository of hurt' indicates that irony can arise from pain and disillusionment, yet it paradoxically connects to 'the repository of hope,' highlighting how even within suffering, there exists the potential for optimism and resilience.
Themes
IronyHurtHopeEmotionComplexity
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a discussion about the role of irony in literature during a literature class.
More from Joyce Carol Oates
All quotes →I never really knew I wanted to 'be' a writer, but I was always writing from a very young age. It became more conscious as an ideal when I was in my twenties.
Joyce Carol OatesRead
I'm drawn to write about upstate New York in the way in which a dreamer might have recurring dreams. My childhood and girlhood were spent in upstate New York, in the country north of Buffalo and West of Rochester. So this part of New York state is very familiar to me and, with its economic difficulties, has become emblematic of much of American life.
Joyce Carol OatesRead
My writing is often a way of 'bearing witness' for others who lack the education and the opportunity to tell their own stories, so I hope that my writing won't be affected too much by my personal life.
Joyce Carol OatesRead
The worst cynicism: a belief in luck.
Joyce Carol OatesRead
. . . there is a wish in the heart of mankind to be distracted and confused. Truth is but one attraction, and not always the most powerful.
Joyce Carol OatesRead
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