Literary Analysis “Life After High School” Essay

The short story, Life After High School by Joyce Carol Oates, is set in the small town of South Lebanon, New York in 1959. The first three quarters of the story is the tragic tale of sloped love where Zachary Graff, the intelligent but socially awkward teenager falls in love with bright Burhman, the attractive and popular girl that everyone adores. She rejects his proposal and he cant take it and decides to take his own life. Later, we find out his real love was Tobias, his one friend. His love for Sunny was his last way to foregather in with the norms of golf club. Oates shows us the intertwined lives of three eminent groom students and the paths taken to gratis(p) themselves of the entrapment of their uncomfortable 1950s conventional lifestyles.Barbara Sunny Burhman is known as the popular too good to be true Christian girl in the story. She was everything the perfect, all American 1950s girl was supposed to be. In the beginning of the story she is referred to as Sunny beca use her 6th grade teacher suggested calling her this because of her sunny personality. Tell you what, boys and girls lets call Barbara Sunny from now on thats what she is (Oates 512). Sunnys granting immunity came by Zachary taking his own life. The irony had not escaped Barbara Burhman that, in casting away his young life so recklessly, Zachary Graff had freed her for hers (Oates 518). She drops the shit Sunny and just goes by Barbara Burhman. When she goes off to schoolhouse she excels in college and solely works on academics. She drops all the Sunny aspects of her life that trapped her and she became a honored teacher and author.There was no push through for an agnostic gay male like Tobias Shanks in a 1950s small town high school and he is forced to lead his life in secrecy. After Zacharys death Tobias Shanks secret is safe from his fellow high school students. Tobias, like Barbara, changes his name after high school and goes by T.R. Shanks. Unlike Barbara, the author does nt let us know Tobias exactpoint of his freedom from the restrictions of the 50s lifestyle, but it does come. It possibly comes after the changing times of the 60s and 70s. T.R. is able to come out and find his place in the world as a gay man. He goes on to become a successful playwright and director winning many awardsOates leads us to believe that in the beginning of the story Zachary is a typical awkward intellectual that falls in love with the perfect girl in his high school. In reality, his true love is his one friend Tobias, but the constraints of the 1950s lifestyle led Zachary to believe that Sunny was his perfect choice. Up until death Zachary was conflicted. When both(prenominal) Sunny and Tobias reject him, death seems his only way to freedom. Oates gives some additional insight about Zacharys thoughts by telling the reader the contents of his automobile after his suicide. The author, by her quirky ending, left it up to the reader to decide that Zachary may have contemp lated other scenarios that possibly wouldnt have been appropriate with the 50s perfect life style. In Zacharys suicide note he takes responsibility and releases all parties of any guilt. This suggests that he did feel constrained by the 50s lifestyle to the very end.Oates writes a story about three high school students of the 1950s that students of today can empathize with. Although thither still may be other issues of acceptance, the time period in which the story is placed was an especially conservative time. Suicide, homosexuality, and women playing important roles in society outside the home were not part of the social norm of the 50s. Today these issues are much more accepted. Oates shows us the intertwined lives of three students and the paths taken to free themselves of the entrapment of their uncomfortable 1950s conventional lifestyles.