An Analysis Of 'Where Is Here By Joyce Carol Oates' House Taken Over

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How Can Transformation Create Fear? When I was fourteen years old, I was home alone at night, and I was hearing noises in my kitchen. I was very worried so I called my mom and she said everything is fine and that i was just freaking myself out. About 10 minutes later, my light turned on by itself and the fridge opened and closed simultaneously. I ran outside and I did not go back inside till my brother got home. This was supposed to be a normal night, but it quickly transformed into one of the most demonic and scariest nights of my life. Transformation obviously creates fear. This can be seen in the following three stories as well. Oate’s “Where is Here” Arthur Tress’ “Dream Collector” and Julio Cortazar’s “House Taken Over” uses transformation of an ordinary person and an ordinary setting to something very terrifying. Joyce Carol Oates’ “Where is Here’s” transformation scares readers because the family and dinner goes from being …show more content…
It is effective because the reader can relate to the setting/house but is soon met me with horrific actions. For instance, “The sound came through muted and indistinct, a chair being knocked over onto the carpet or the muffled buzzing of a conversation”(39). This proves that the house has dreadful things happening to it because something is happening in the passage room that they do not know about. On the contrary, the story says, “I took Irene’s arm and forced her to run with me to the wrought-iron door, not wanting to look back. You could hear the noises, still muffled but louder, just behind us” (41). This explains that un-describable acts are happening in the house, and no one knows what they are. Therefore, transformation was effective because the story is set in real-life, but the reader never finds out what chilling events were
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