We Were the Mulvaneys

Oates occasionally uses chapters as “breaks” from the main force of the narrative. These excursive chapters deviate from the plotline frequently in the form of external analepsis (flashbacks to events that take place prior to the chronological start of the narrative), as in Chapters 7, 11, and 13. Here, the narrator, seemingly omniscient in point of view, takes us to events in Corinne’s childhood (Chapter 7), the birth of each of the Mulvaney children (Chapter 11), and Corinne and Michael’s courtship and marriage (Chapter 13). These chapters are also completing, as they supply information that fills in the gaps in previous narration. Oates utilizes this complex narrative structure to mirror the chaos of real lives and real family dynamics, while also depressurizing the main narrative drive. Thus, Chapter 7, dealing with Corinne’s memory of childhood and the roots of her religious belief, removes the reader temporarily from Marianne’s traumatic experience. Similarly, Chapters 11 and 13 distance us briefly from the life-changing upset of Corinne’s understanding of Marianne’s trauma.

Chapter 8, with its deceptively and ironically sweet title, is one of several pivotal parts of the novel, as in it the contemplation of events moves to the background while the direct, active experience takes center position. Marianne hides her blood-stained dress in the closet to avoid facing reality. She reacts with anger to the clocks that remind her of the passage of time, which paradoxically does not remove her from the experience but brings it into sharper contrast. She seeks the solace of her horse, Molly-O, regressing into childhood to eliminate any understanding of what she has lived through, despite the flashbacks to Zachary Lundt’s words, in turn cajoling and threatening. She visits her mother’s shop in search of the print called The Pilgrim, unconsciously seeking identification with the depicted supplicant, and takes several baths to try to remove the idea of traces. The sequence of her actions shows us Marianne’s progression in how she can psychically approach and process her rape: She moves from the realistic onto the symbolical, from the earthly to the divine, searching for meaning. In this sense, the clocks, The Pilgrim, and the ritualistic washing become symbols rather than ordinary actions.

In Chapter 9, “Judd the narrator” again reminds us of the unreliability of his memory and knowledge. “Judd the character” has rarely been privy to “adult conversations” as the youngest child, but, conveniently in terms of plot, he has listened in on a key conversations between his father and his older brothers, Mike Jr. and Patrick. Discussing Della Rae’s rape, the father takes the moral high ground and sternly instructs his sons to protect a woman in danger. In terms of character development and internal logic of the novel, these words cement Michael’s fate: His hypocrisy and self-delusion will soon reveal itself as he grasps that he is willing to sacrifice his own daughter for the benefit of belonging to the exclusively male-dominated small-town society. The superior stance he takes in instructing his sons, along with the love he feels for his children, ensures that his downfall will be all the more dramatic. 

Tellingly for Corinne’s character (and the complacent Mulvaney family as a whole), Chapter 10, suitably entitled “The Revelation” as a symbolic and ironic determinant of Corinne’s religious observance, allows the townspeople to be the bearers of truth of events that the family should have understood. The biblical reference indicates that only those who are worthy will have access to the truth; in that sense, Corinne has failed both as a believer and as a mother, because she has failed to perceive the truth of her daughter’s trauma. This connects to the reference to Providence in Chapter 8, and to Corinne’s unquestioning belief in her own righteousness. While Corinne condemns the country club for being snobbish and fancy, in this chapter Oates reveals her as elitist in her indignation and her rejection of values she does not share. Regardless of the truth of her observations pertaining to the club, or perhaps because of it, Corinne has self-righteously shunned Michael’s aspirations and the people with whom he socializes: “Am I disappointed with him?—oh just a little” (104). The symbolic punishment comes in the shape of the doctor’s perfectly coiffed wife who reveals to Corinne the truth about her daughter.  

Corinne finds Marianne in a Catholic church and cannot comprehend what her daughter would be doing there. As a Protestant, she instinctively perceives the church as being “one of theirs!” (115), showing that her religious belief is narrow in its worldview, especially since both religions are Christian, which again questions the depth and quality of Corinne’s faith. Marianne, meanwhile, is seeking solace in a church, regardless of the denomination, because she is experiencing a traumatic change. Corinne feels fear; she fears the church, the situation, and her own daughter, who has suddenly become a riddle (interestingly, Marianne herself, who is in the process of symbolically becoming The Pilgrim, has always regarded the print as a “riddle to be decoded” (80)).

In a single moment, for Corinne, Marianne has become “a hurt girl, a damaged girl. A girl Corinne didn’t know” (118). Oates emphasizes the fact that Corinne, like many parents, has an accepted and approved idea of all her children, and as soon as they start deviating from this image, she feels she is losing her grasp on them, especially if, like now, she senses that the change is something not easily solved or ignored. The chapter ends with an intense, though blurred glimpse of an animal that Corinne runs over with her car (in keeping with the blurred glimpses of Marianne’s rape). This is another symbolic representation of the traumatized Marianne, who is now losing what is left of her composure and is soon to be run over by the safeguarding demands of the Mulvaneys.