Does Joyce Carol Oates Use Repetition In We Were The Mulvaneys

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In the passage from the novel, We Were the Mulvaneys, Joyce Carol Oates uses selection of detail and repetition to characterize the speaker, Judd Mulvaney as childish and afraid. Repetition is often used by characters to emphasize a point they are trying to make. However, when used in excess it makes the character look immature. Judd Mulvaney uses repetition in nearly every other sentence so this is a clear attempt by Oates to characterize Judd as immature or childish. In most cases, the repetition adds nothing to the sentence, for example, when he said, “The book was flowing below left to right (east to west)”. Both refer to the same direction so the inclusion of the two is unnecessary.Along with Judds childish nature, Oates uses repetition

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