In
Joyce Carol Oates’ short story “Four Summers,” Oates employs a variety of
themes, subjects, and styles, contributing to further analyses and point. The
story is divided into four different segments, based on the main character’s
maturity and development through the years, in a recurring setting of a family boathouse tavern. In
each part of the story, Sissie, the narrator and observer, shows a different
level of maturation through her evolving emotions towards different subjects,
such as family, marriage, and life.
Sissie's
thoughts evolve from childlike wonder and innocent observation to
influential realizations, such as observing her parents' appearances to
realizing her parents' declining marriage. In Part III, Sissie has her
first romantic encounter with an unknown man, gaining confidence as she
embodies the personalities of her closest friends, but pushes the man
away when she becomes uncomfortable. In this, though her thoughts are
focused on convincing herself that she is capable of romantic interest,
it is inferred that Sissie is not ready and that she needs more time to
mature into a capable woman. Also in Part III, her thoughts about her
family turn negatively as she comments on her mother, "In the
photograph, she was pretty, almost beautiful, but I don't believe it.
Not really. I can't believe it, and I hate her" (51). Furthermore,
Sissie states that her mother waits for her father to come home, to
continue their quarrel, and that it never stops (52).
Because of
these observations and life experiences, Sissie paints a negative
picture of love and marriage. In Part IV, Sissie is pregnant and
'happily' married to Jesse, who reminds her of her father and his laugh
and reflects upon the similarities between the two men of their "simple,
healthy, honest" (55) personality and is convinced that those type of
men generally lose everything. Sissie questions her marriage to Jesse and hopes that he will be different from her father in terms of marital relations.
Based on her experience with her parents, she thinks that with her and
Jesse's relationship, "it will subside someday, but nothing surprises me
because I have learned everything. (55)" Just with the theme of free
will, Sissie thinks that marriage is more of a duty in which both involved cannot free themselves.
She has to constantly remind herself that she is on her way to creating a
great life with her husband. From the beginning, Sissie describes her
life with her family in a negative light, which influences the way she
matures and develops.
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