We Were the Mulvaneys (Style)

Style

Denouement

The French word, denouement, literally means "the unraveling" and is commonly used to describe the part of a story that comes after the action is completed, when the plot complications that have been put in motion throughout the story have reached their climax and the issues explored are settled. The main part of We Were the Mulvaneys ends with the scattering of Michael Mulvaney's ashes. It is a poignant moment, one that gives some closure to some family members, but it still leaves unanswered questions: Patrick is still missing after having abducted a man at gunpoint years earlier, and Marianne's relationship with Dr. West has just been mentioned, leaving open the possibility that she may repeat with him the self-sabotaging choices she made in previous relationships. Corinne is left alone and penniless.

The book's epilogue, set some years later, might be seen as the author's way of pasting a happy ending onto an unhappy story, but it actually is necessary for telling readers the results of the family's struggles. The fact that the Mulvaneys end up as functional adults in their separate lives is not a reversal of the events of the book, but a reasonable result of the growth process. Although Oates skips years in the lives of her characters, she lets readers know, when the story has unraveled, exactly where the events of the story have led each of them.

First-Person Narrator

We Were the Mulvaneys is told from a first person point of view, narrated by Judd Mulvaney. However, Oates modifies or adapts the point of view as needed. In some places Judd speaks in first person about his experiences, referring to himself as "I" or "me." He experiences Green Isle Co-op for himself on a trip there with his mother, and he knows more than anyone else about Patrick's plan to abduct Zachary Lundt because Patrick has involved Judd in the plan. But some events lie beyond Judd's firsthand knowledge, such as the rape or the gunpoint abduction or his parents' night at the Wolf's Head Inn; in these cases, perhaps readers can assume that he is reporting on what he has heard or learned, perhaps even filling in gaps with his imagination.

In addition, some events are reported in third person point of view. The third person narrative reports on Marianne's life apart from her birth family, her stay at the Green Isle Co-op, her time with Miss Hagström, her move to Sykesville where she meets Whit West; similarly, long sections focus on Patrick's life at Cornell and his thoughts about his mentor and fellow students. For these parts, Oates uses third person.