Corrine and Pinch and Choice Detail

Jan. 12th, 2021

In We Were the Mulvaneys, Joyce Carol Oates returns to the same choice detail when referencing her primary characters’ physical personas. Corrine Mulvaney, matriarch of the family is described as follows:

Corrine was tall, lanky, loose jointed and freckled, somewhere beyond forty, yet noisily girlish, with a lean horsey face often flushed, carrot colored hair so frizzed, she laughingly complained, she could hardly draw a curry comb through it.

The frizzy “carrot colored,” hair, and the “horsey” face immediately create a strong visual for readers, and this imagery is reiterated throughout the story. Here’s another example:

Mom with her frizzed hair that shone a luminous carroty color in the sun. Mom’s smile that could turn sweet and teasing, or pucker into her “vinegar” look; her loud neighing laugh that made people want to join in, just hearing it.

While the language in this physical description, changes, the choice details remain the same; We once again return to the frizzy hair while the horse-like imagery expands with the mention of Corinne’s “loud neighing laugh.”

We readers are similarly able to retain a clear visual of Patrick “Pinch” Mulvaney, because of the choice details that resurface periodically:

Patrick never missed a day of school, sitting quietly in his classes, frowning at his teachers who admired rather than liked him, a thin-limbed, lanky boy with a penetrating steely-blue stare. Because his left eye was so weak, he sometimes narrowed it almost to a slit. Pinch’s laser-ray.

Due to an incident during his younger years, Pinch suffered vision loss in his left eye, so the portrayal of Pinch constantly focuses around his squint and frown—a slightly sinister look—that never leaves us.

His glasses steamed faintly. The peripheral vision in his left eye was weak, and weaker still when he was exhausted or rattled, so he turned unconsciously to his left, turning his entire body, frowning…

The frown is prominent once again, as is the weak eye for which his whole body has to over-compensate.