Joyce Carol Oates
Joyce Carol Oates' short narrative entitled, "Life After High School" depicted an uncomfortable friendship between two people finding their way and themselves through high school in the 1950's. The relationship seemed doomed from the start with an awkwardly chubby loner named Zachary Graff very persistently pursued the friendship of the town's virtuous all-American darling, Barbara Burhlman, better known as Sunny. On the surface, the two were as different as night and day. Zachary was anti-social, unpopular and regarded in most circles as strange. He did not have any friends, despite being very intelligent and participating in scholastic organizations at school. On the opposite side of the spectrum, Sunny was extremely popular and sought after by everyone. Girls envied and looked up to her and boys admired her. She was smart, agreeable and liked by all. Even though Zachary and Sunny were poles apart at first glance, they both shared a common burden. They both had expectations and reputations they were always up against and live up to. As a reader we are left to come to cloudy conclusions what issues Zachary was forced to deal with, but we all know that he was very desperate and ultimately could not successfully resolve th
All of these examples show how her vanity got her into trouble, but this last instance shows how it may have saved Sunny's life. The story mentioned an instance, where Sunny was a cheerleader at a basketball game, when the school's star player got injured during the game. Sunny carried the weight of her meticulous and agreeable reputation she was cursed with since the day her name was changed from Barbara to "Sunny" with painstaking effort. She had an opportunity to really put things in perspective and give Zachary the gut check that everyone knows is necessary. Sunny's mother was even hesitant to allow her to talk on the phone with Zachary, to the point where she lied. She tries so hard to be likeable and polite that she finds herself in this very unpleasant predicament. The passiveness and politeness that she was so well-known for may have been attributing factors that may have Zachary to unwittingly believe that he had a chance with Sunny. At an early age she was noticed as a girl whose smile could make anyone's' day brighter, hence the nickname Sunny that stuck ever since. Sunny is never really completely comfortable when she is with him. This a crucial point where her secret vanity clouds her decision-making. When Zachary comes to Sunny's window on that fateful night where he later takes his own life, it was her secret vanity that saved her from otherwise would've been a bigger tragedy. Yet, she hesitates and instead hides behind tears and simply says no. Sunny was known to always try to do the right thing, and she knew that as soon as she goes with Zachary, even if she wanted to, she would not only go against her parents but she would be violating her good morals. Her mother answered Zachary's phone call one day and told him that Sunny was not home, when in actuality she was standing right next to her mother. She goes against the advice and own mother's instincts to try to uphold that facade of being agreeable and friendly to Zachary.
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Acceptance Essays
