The Sacrifice (Oates novel)

Last updated

The Sacrifice
The Sacrifice (Oates novel).jpg
Author Joyce Carol Oates
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Publisher Ecco Press
Publication date
2015
Media typePrint (hardback & paperback)
Pages309 pp
ISBN 978-0062332981
OCLC 945404090

The Sacrifice is a 2015 novel by the American writer Joyce Carol Oates. Set in blighted urban New Jersey in the 1980s, it follows a young Black woman, Sybilla, who is discovered in a degraded condition in an abandoned factory after going missing. When she alleges that she was kidnapped, assaulted, and left for dead by a group of white police officers, her cause is taken up by an ambitious and unscrupulous civil rights activist and his lawyer brother, despite evidence of deceit in her story. The events of the novel are based on the real-life Tawana Brawley case, and takes place in a part of New Jersey still suffering from the aftermath of post-war deindustrialization and the 1967 Newark riots.

Contents

Following some of Oates's previous work, the novel explores themes of race, police violence, exploitation, and how individuals can be turned into symbols. Oates views the novel as "strongly linked" to her 1969 novel Them . [1] It received a polarized critical reception: some reviews praised its treatment of the theme of racial inequality, while others felt it lacked nuance and empathy.

Plot

Semi-abandoned buildings in Newark in the mid-1990s. The Sacrifice takes place in a similar setting. NewarkRiot-Area.jpg
Semi-abandoned buildings in Newark in the mid-1990s. The Sacrifice takes place in a similar setting.

On October 7, 1987, in Pascayne, New Jersey, a badly beaten young Black woman is discovered in the cellar of an abandoned factory. She is partially naked and caked in dried blood with feces smeared in her hair and racial slurs written on her body in marker. The ambulance crew notes a few details that they find odd: she seems to be pretending to be unconscious, and the words written on her body are upside-down.

At the hospital, she is identified as Sybilla Frye, a 15-year-old girl who has been missing for the past several days. Sybilla's mother, Ednetta, arrives at the hospital and demands that they release Sybilla into her custody. She refuses to allow a rape kit to be administered to Sybilla, but consents to a police interview on the condition that the police officer be a Black woman. Sybilla communicates to the assigned officer, a young Puerto Rican woman named Ines Iglesias, that she was abducted, raped, and left for dead by a group of five or six white police officers. As Sybilla is largely uncommunicative and Ednetta is hostile to Iglesias, the interview ends quickly, and Ednetta insists on taking Sybilla home.

Ednetta takes Sybilla to Sybilla's grandmother's house to hide and refuses to tell the police where she is. She tries to conceal the attack from Anis Schutt, her common-law husband who has harbored a deep hatred of the police since they killed his brother, and she rebuffs the entreaties of neighbors and civil rights lawyers to pursue the case against the police.

A month after Sybilla was discovered, word of the alleged attack reaches the ears of Marus Mudrick, a Black preacher and prominent civil rights activist. Mudrick spots an opportunity to capitalize on the crime, and reaches out to Ednetta and Sybilla offering to represent them and publicize their case. Ednetta and her daughter are hesitant, but eventually given in to Mudrick's charm.

Mudrick quickly drums up outrage over the attack and the inaction of the Pascayne police, with the hesitant support of his twin brother Byron, a respectable lawyer with a milder temperament who somewhat resents Marus's success. A rally that Mudrick convenes in Pascayne turns violent when he urges them to march on the city hall. In the ensuing chaos, Iglesias, who is attending the rally off-duty, is injured, loses her service weapon, and is subsequently reassigned to a different division as punishment.

In December, rookie police officer Jerold "Jere" Zahn kills himself after finding out that he has been let go from the force. Seizing on the news, Mudrick compels Sybilla to identify Zahn as one of her rapists. When the district attorney challenges the accusation, Mudrick accuses him of participating in the rape, too. Meanwhile, Mudrick has increasingly taken control of Ednetta and Sybilla's lives, moving them from their home and even confiscating a Rolex watch that Mike Tyson gave as a gift to Sybilla. At the height of the crusade, Mudrick is stabbed and nearly killed by an agent of one of his rivals, the militant leader of the Kingdom of Islam known as the Black Prince.

A few months later, Sybilla has joined the Kingdom of Islam and the Black Prince has taken up her cause. In a series of flashbacks, it is implied that Sybilla and Ednetta concocted the story of the gang rape after Anis beat Sybilla brutally. At a rally for Sybilla organized by the Black Prince in Pascayne, Anis is stopped by the police. After hesitating, Anis shoots two of them and is instantly killed by a barrage of return fire.

Background

Joyce Carol Oates

Oates in 2013 Joyce Carol Oates 2013.jpg
Oates in 2013

Joyce Carol Oates is an American writer. Described as "America's foremost woman of letters" [2] and known for her prolific output, she had written more than 40 novels before The Sacrifice, [2] some of which had dealt with issues of racism and misogyny. [3] In the afterword to The Sacrifice, Oates states that the novel is "strongly linked" to her 1969 novel Them , [1] which ends with the 1967 Detroit riots. [4] Several of her previous books were based on real-life events, notably Blonde , about Marilyn Monroe, and Black Water , a roman à clef that parallels the Chappaquiddick incident. [5] [6] According to Alan Cheuse, The Sacrifice was published in the midst of a "national trauma on police and unarmed victims", [7] and a subsequent novel by Oates, Night. Sleep. Death. The Stars. , would also address racism and police violence. [4] Greg Johnson, who wrote a biography of Oates, notes that she is willing to take on themes of race more directly than most other white authors. [8]

Tawana Brawley

On November 28, 1987, Tawana Brawley, a 15-year Black girl who had been missing for four days, was found, alive, in a plastic garbage bag outside an apartment where she had lived in Wappingers Falls in the U.S. state of New York. Dazed and mostly unresponsive, she was smeared with feces and several racial slurs had been written on her body. In subsequent police interviews, Brawley indicated that she had been kidnapped by a group of white men, including one who appeared to be a police officer. Brawley's case was taken up and brought to national attention by civil rights activist Al Sharpton (assisted by lawyers Alton H. Maddox and C. Vernon Mason), who alleged a large-scale cover-up. A grand jury later concluded that Brawley fabricated her story, [9] although Brawley continued to maintain that she was telling the truth. [10] The plot of the novel closely follows the Brawley case. [11]

Setting

The novel is set in the fictional town of Pascayne (based on Passaic) in northern New Jersey in the 1980s. [7] [11] After World War II, New Jersey cities were hit hard by deindustrialization, while at the same time the Black population of cities like Newark, a major city close to the novel's fictional setting, increased significantly. [12] : 3  In July 1967, Newark saw five days of rioting after the beating of a Black cab driver by white police officers; over the course of the "most devastating riots in the history of New Jersey" twenty-six people were killed and millions of dollars of property was destroyed. [12] : 98  The riots – referenced in the novel [13] – left a legacy of distrust between the city's Black population and the mostly-white police force. [14] The riots also hastened white flight from the city, and in their aftermath rising crime and urban blight contributed to Newark's status as "a symbol of America's decaying cities". [15]

Themes

According to Roxane Gay, the novel's title refers to the fact that "nearly all of the characters sacrifice something – faith, hope, dignity, truth, justice." [11] More literally, Alan Cheuse points out that the detective Ines Iglesias wonders if she is going to be made a "'sacrifice' to public opinion", [7] and at one point Marus tells Sybilla that she is "a race victim, a martyr, and a sacrifice". [13] A central theme of the novel is how individual people and events are transformed into symbols and "are made to surrender their unique complexities as human beings", sometimes resulting in the obfuscation of facts in service of a larger purpose. [13] According to Kirkus Reviews, the novel raises the question of whether the truth or falsity of Sybilla's story makes "racism... any less true". [16] In an academic review, Eric K. Anderson links The Sacrifice to Oates's earlier novel Them and its "understanding of how specific incidents of racial conflict cannot be viewed only in isolation". [13] Anderson also notes that the battle of wills between the Mudrick twins recalls similar dynamics between twins in previous novels by Oates. [13]

Race plays an important role in The Sacrifice, not only in the conflict between white and non-white communities – exemplified by the police killing of Anis Schutt's brother as well as by Sybilla's case – but also in internal tensions within communities of color, such as Ednetta Frye's distrust of Iglesias, the Hispanic detective. Rose Tremain of The Guardian views the violence that breaks out during Mudrick's crusade as "mirroring an internal labyrinth of fear". [3] A review in The Independent found that the novel depicts the "powerless of women" in a male world, and "simmers with barely concealed rage at the impotence inflicted on people by race and gender inequalities". [17] Multiple reviewers noted the parallels between the novel and contemporary racial tensions in the United States. [7] [18]

Reception

Writing in The New York Times , Roxane Gay offered measured praise for Oates's ambition but criticized the novel for its "lack of empathy" and "utter disregard for nuance", singling out inaccuracies in Oates's rendition of African-American Vernacular English. [11] Kirkus Reviews found that the multiple perspectives employed by the novel failed to offer "nuance or fresh insights", and concluded that "Oates revives an old scandal without making it new." [16] Publishers Weekly similarly criticized the lack of nuance in its "heavy and overt focus on race", and described the narrative as "fragmented and often repetitive". [19] A review of Oates's later novel Night. Sleep. Death. The Stars. noted that Oates's engagement with "the subjects of race, violence and socioeconomic status" has had only "intermittent success" and that The Sacrifice in particular was "marred by a lack of empathy and worse". [4]

In a review for National Public Radio, Alan Cheuse was more positive, calling the novel a "raw and earnest work of fiction [that] offers a mix of fiery drama and the cold bone truths of race as we all live it today." [7] Lesley McDowell's review in The Independent praised it as a "superb" synthesis of the themes of sexual violence and racial prejudice written in her "characteristic visceral and hypnotising style". [17] The Washington Post 's Jon Michaud and The Guardian 's Rose Tremain found the Mudrick brothers particularly compelling. [5] [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Al Sharpton</span> American Baptist minister, civil rights activist and talk show host

Alfred Charles Sharpton Jr. is an American civil rights activist, Baptist minister, talk show host and politician. Sharpton is the founder of the National Action Network. In 2004, he was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. presidential election. He hosts his own radio talk show, Keepin' It Real, and he makes frequent appearances on cable news television. In 2011, he was named the host of MSNBC's PoliticsNation, a nightly talk show. In 2015, the program was shifted to Sunday mornings. In October 2020, PoliticsNation was rescheduled to Saturdays and Sundays, airing at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time both days.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joyce Carol Oates</span> American author

Joyce Carol Oates is an American writer. Oates published her first book in 1963, and has since published 58 novels, a number of plays and novellas, and many volumes of short stories, poetry, and non-fiction. Her novels Black Water (1992), What I Lived For (1994), and Blonde (2000), and her short story collections The Wheel of Love (1970) and Lovely, Dark, Deep: Stories (2014) were each finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. She has won many awards for her writing, including the National Book Award, for her novel them (1969), two O. Henry Awards, the National Humanities Medal, and the Jerusalem Prize (2019).

<i>Them</i> (novel) 1969 novel by Joyce Carol Oates

Them is a novel by Joyce Carol Oates, the third in the Wonderland Quartet she inaugurated with A Garden of Earthly Delights. It was published by Vanguard in 1969 and it won the U.S. National Book Award for Fiction in 1970.

Tawana Vicenia Brawley is an African-American woman from New York who gained notoriety in November 1987 at age 15 when she accused four white men of kidnapping and raping her over a 4-day period. On November 28, 1987, Brawley was found in a trash bag after having been missing for four days from her home in Wappingers Falls, New York. She had racial slurs written on her body and was covered in feces. Brawley accused four white men of having raped her. The charges received widespread national attention in part because of the appalling condition in which she had been left, her young age (15), and the professional status of the persons she accused of the crime. Brawley's advisers—Al Sharpton, Alton H. Maddox, and C. Vernon Mason—also helped in bringing the case to national prominence. After hearing evidence, a grand jury concluded in October 1988 that Brawley had not been the victim of a forcible sexual assault, and that she herself may have created the appearance of such an attack. Steven Pagones, the New York prosecutor whom Brawley had accused as being one of her assailants, later successfully sued Brawley, and her three advisers, for defamation.

The 1967 Newark riots were an episode of violent, armed conflict in the streets of Newark, New Jersey, United States. Taking place over a four-day period, the Newark riots resulted in at least 26 deaths and hundreds more serious injuries. Serious property damage, including shattered storefronts and fires caused by arson, left much of the city's built environment damaged or destroyed. At the height of the conflict, the National Guard was called upon to occupy the city with tanks and other military equipment, leading to iconic media depictions that were considered particularly shocking when shared in the national press. In the aftermath of the riots, Newark was quite rapidly abandoned by many of its remaining middle-class and affluent residents, as well as much of its white working-class population. This accelerated flight led to a decades-long period of disinvestment and urban blight, including soaring crime rates and gang activity.

Janet R. Maslin is an American journalist, best known as a film and literary critic for The New York Times. She served as a Times film critic from 1977 to 1999 and as a book critic from 2000 to 2015. In 2000 Maslin helped found the Jacob Burns Film Center in Pleasantville, New York. She is president of its board of directors.

<i>If Beale Street Could Talk</i> 1974 novel by James Baldwin

If Beale Street Could Talk is a 1974 novel by American writer James Baldwin. His fifth novel, it is a love story set in Harlem in the early 1970s. The title is a reference to the 1916 W.C. Handy blues song "Beale Street Blues", named after Beale Street in Downtown Memphis, Tennessee.

<i>Black Water</i> (novella) 1992 novella by Joyce Carol Oates

Black Water is a 1992 novella by the American writer and professor Joyce Carol Oates. It is a roman à clef based on the Chappaquiddick incident, in which U.S. senator Ted Kennedy crashed a car and caused the death by drowning of passenger Mary Jo Kopechne. The novella was a 1993 Pulitzer Prize finalist for fiction.

<i>Blonde</i> (novel) 2000 novel by Joyce Carol Oates

Blonde is a bestselling 2000 biographical fiction novel by Joyce Carol Oates that presents a fictionalized take on the life of American actress Marilyn Monroe.

<i>After the Wreck, I Picked Myself Up, Spread My Wings, and Flew Away</i> 2006 young adult novel by Joyce Carol Oates

After the Wreck, I Picked Myself Up, Spread My Wings, and Flew Away is a young adult novel written by Joyce Carol Oates. First published in 2006, it is her fifth novel for teenagers.

<i>Freaky Green Eyes</i>

Freaky Green Eyes (2003) is the third young adult fiction novel written by Joyce Carol Oates. The story follows the life of 15-year-old Francesca "Franky" Pierson as she reflects on the events leading to her mother's mysterious disappearance. Through what she calls Freaky's thoughts, Franky accepts the truth about her mother's disappearance and her father's hand in it.

<i>Because It Is Bitter, and Because It Is My Heart</i> 1990 novel by Joyce Carol Oates

Because It Is Bitter, and Because It Is My Heart is a 1990 novel by American novelist Joyce Carol Oates. The title is taken from "In the Desert", a poem by Stephen Crane. Oates's novel was nominated for best work of fiction in the 1990 National Book Awards.

A racial hoax occurs when a person falsely claims that a crime was committed by member of a specific race. The crime may be fictitious, or may be an actual crime.

<i>Son of the Morning</i> (novel)

Son of the Morning is a 1978 novel by American author Joyce Carol Oates. The book was first published on August 1, 1978 through Vanguard Press.

<i>The Needles Eye</i> (novel) Margaret Drabble novel

The Needle's Eye is a 1972 novel by British novelist Margaret Drabble. The novel was well received by reviewers, like contemporary novelist Joyce Carol Oates. Though it was her fifth novel, Drabble described it as her first time that she could "actually write a novel" expressing what she wanted to write.

The St. John's lacrosse case was a 1990 criminal case in which some members of the St. John's University men's lacrosse team were accused of raping an African American female. The St. John's Lacrosse rape case was a sports scandal that caused significant controversy within the school, amongst feminists, New York City, and the lacrosse community. This case was a predecessor to the Duke lacrosse case. The case was the basis of a Law & Order episode called "Out of Control".

<i>Mudwoman</i>

Mudwoman is 2012 novel by Joyce Carol Oates. The novel is a psychological horror and campus novel, which follows the experience of a university president, M.R. Neukirchen, "haunted by her secret past as the child of a poor, mentally ill religious fanatic who tried to drown her in a riverside mudflat".

<i>Night. Sleep. Death. The Stars.</i> 2020 novel by Joyce Carol Oates

Night. Sleep. Death. The Stars. is a 2020 novel by American writer Joyce Carol Oates, about a man who was killed by the police and the aftermath of his death on his family. Its title comes from a poem by Walt Whitman.

<i>The Trees</i> (Everett novel) 2021 novel by Percival Everett

The Trees is a 2021 novel by American author Percival Everett, published by Graywolf Press.

The Poisoned Kiss and Other Stories from the Portuguese is a collection of short stories written by Joyce Carol Oates. It was published in 1975 by Vanguard Press.

References

  1. 1 2 Oates, Joyce Carol (2015). "Afterword". The Sacrifice. Ecco Press. p. 310.
  2. 1 2 Hoby, Hermione (9 January 2016). "Joyce Carol Oates: 'People think I write quickly, but I actually don't'". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 February 2022.
  3. 1 2 3 Tremain, Rose (12 January 2015). "The Sacrifice by Joyce Carol Oates review – gripping and powerful". The Guardian . Retrieved 11 February 2022.
  4. 1 2 3 Johnston, Bret Anthony (9 June 2020). "Joyce Carol Oates Takes On Racism and Grief in Her New Novel". The New York Times. Retrieved 11 February 2022.
  5. 1 2 Michaud, Jon (29 January 2015). "Book review: 'The Sacrifice,' by Joyce Carol Oates, inspired by Tawana Brawley case". The Washington Post . Retrieved 11 February 2022.
  6. ↑ Oates, Joyce Carol (24 October 2003). "Off the Page: Joyce Carol Oates". The Washington Post (Interview). Interviewed by Carole Burns. Retrieved 11 February 2022.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 Cheuse, Alan (26 December 2014). "Joyce Carol Oates Wades Into Troubled Waters With 'The Sacrifice'". NPR . Retrieved 11 February 2022.
  8. ↑ Johnson, Greg. "Joyce Carol Oates at 80: The Anatomy of a Literary Career". Salmagundi (202): 166–178. ProQuest   2244011456.
  9. ↑ "Evidence Points to Deceit by Brawley". The New York Times. 27 September 1988. Retrieved 11 February 2022.
  10. ↑ Yardley, Jim (3 December 1997). "After a Decade, Brawley Reappears and Repeats Charges". The New York Times. Retrieved 11 February 2022.
  11. 1 2 3 4 Gay, Roxane (30 January 2015). "'The Sacrifice,' by Joyce Carol Oates". The New York Times. Retrieved 11 February 2022.
  12. 1 2 Mumford, Kevin (2007). Newark: A History of Race, Rights, and Riots in America. New York University Press. ISBN   9780814795637.
  13. 1 2 3 4 5 Anderson, Eric K. (2015). "Review of The Sacrifice". Bearing Witness: Joyce Carol Oates Studies. 2. Retrieved 11 February 2022.
  14. ↑ Rojas, Rick; Atkinson, Khorri (11 July 2017). "Five Days of Unrest That Shaped, and Haunted, Newark". The New York Times. Retrieved 11 February 2022.
  15. ↑ Rojas, Rick (8 August 2017). "A Revival Comes to Newark, but Some Worry It's 'Not for Us'". The New York Times. Retrieved 11 February 2022.
  16. 1 2 "The Sacrifice". Kirkus Reviews. 5 November 2014. Retrieved 11 February 2022.
  17. 1 2 McDowell, Lesley (24 January 2015). "The Sacrifice by Joyce Carol Oates - book review: Raging for the powerless". The Independent. Retrieved 5 June 2022.
  18. ↑ Courtney, Lorraine (21 February 2015). "Brilliant tale inspired by infamous rape claim; The Sacrifice". Belfast Telegraph. Retrieved 5 June 2022.
  19. ↑ "The Sacrifice". Publishers Weekly. 261 (48). 24 November 2014. Retrieved 5 June 2022.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.