Detroit House Of Correction And Began My Life Over Again Analysis

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I will explore the themes in Joyce Carol Oates’s emotional roller-coaster, “How I Contemplated the World from the Detroit House of Correction and Began My Life over Again.” The themes in this story are love, the hardships people go through, and how money cannot buy happiness. Throughout the story, the girl struggles with feeling love from her parents. That is why the girl steals and goes to downtown Detroit. She does this to get her parents’ attention because she wants to feel loved and accepted by them. The girl’s mother is more obsessed and worried about objects and social events than spending time with her daughter. Also, her father is too busy to spend any time with her too. Then, the girl starts dating Simon because she wants to feel …show more content…

Since Clarita has always lived on the streets, her surroundings and experiences made her go into prostitution and drugs instead of going to school or getting a real job. In reality, a lot of people who live on the streets are more susceptible to crime, drugs, violence, and even prostitution. Thus, Joyce showed the hardships people went through in reality in her story too. The last important theme in this story is money cannot buy happiness. The main character in this story, the fifteen year-old girl, is never happy with her luxurious, money-filled life. For instance, she steals despite knowing that she could buy the things she steals. She steals because she likes the feeling and attention her parents give her. However, this story shows money does not buy happiness because the main character never cared about the luxurious things or the money. The girl only cared about feeling loved and accepted by her parents and the world. The lessons I took away from this story is money cannot buy happiness, but love is the key to happiness. The girl realizes when she returns home at the end that she missed running water and her bed not the rich things she

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