Joyce Carol Oates's Essay They All Just Went Away

Improved Essays
They All Just Went Away is an essay by Joyce Carol Oates, in the essay she talks about her personal experiences with a neighboring family in her childhood town. Oates begins by telling us about her fascination with abandoned houses, hinting to us that her neighbor’s house will eventually become abandoned. She then introduces us to the Weidel family, a family with a mother, father, and their six children. One day, the father, who was a drunk and abusive man who beats his wife and two daughters, then sets the house on fire. Oates and her family, along with most of the townspeople saw this a murder attempt. After the fire, the family split up and “they all just went away”. I like how she mentioned the title in the essay, but she only mentioned

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