The Gravedigger's Daughter

I've finished Oates' novel and I am impressed again and again with her writing style, sense of characterization, and most of all her ability to seem emotionally detached from her novels. I have always respected Oates for her bluntness. However, I don't want anyone to get the wrong idea. Oates is blunt, very much so, but she isn't blunt in the manner of screaming in your face. She highlights the psychological aspects that most skim over, and the events that happen in the world that are plain and simply tragic. Without some form of analysis or contemplation how can we as a human race learn from such events. Oates doesn't focus on these things to depress the mood, instead she focuses on them to highlight possibility.

I was impressed by Oates' protagonist in this novel. She is described as an independent woman in a male dominated society. She overcomes so many trials as an individual but fails to include her loved ones in her emotional life. Hazel Jones truly is a near perfect example of an independent, successful, and hard working woman, but she is a horrible example of an emotional counterpart of a family. I am not arguing that the only way to live life is by marrying, but in this novel Hazel does marry and has a son. She profoundly affects her sounds happiness and emotional stability by being detached and only a figure of a mother. Hazel saves her son from an abusive father and a failed life but pushes him away as he grows up.

I was also very surprised by the ending. With the other pieces of work by Oates' I have read, I was really impressed by the stress the son feels and thought that it would catch up with him and the book would end in his tragic death or suicide. However, by adding an epilogue Oates sums up the lives of her characters in small details. We learn the son is married with his own children and Hazel is still married and reaches out to a long lost cousin. At the conclusion of her novel, Oates introduces yet again another side of Hazel Jones who reconfigures with her true self, Rebbecca Schwart.