Critique of Big Mouth & Ugly Girl: Joyce Carol Oates

I enjoyed reading this book. I’m big on character development, and I thought Joyce Carol Oates really let us into the minds and lives of Ursula and Matt. We see Ursula’s character develop internally for the most part, describing her mood like Fiery Red and Ugly Girl, but we also see her struggle through interaction with her family and those around her. Confidence springs from her position on the basketball team, but she quits after everyone thinks she loses a game on purpose. Throughout the book she goes back and forth between depressive moods, eventually taking more control of her life through her relationship with Matt. We see Matt’s character develop more socially, going from popular student council vice president who writes for the school paper to possible terrorist. His friends abandon him, his family is stressed out, he feels like an outcast and doesn’t know where to turn. His feelings of desperation unfold through his deleted-before-sent e-mails to Ursula, saying how lonely he feels.

The plot of this book is pretty complicated in trying to connect each event to something or someone, but overall the themes are simple: accusation, betrayal, loneliness, shifts in socialization, family struggles, emotional downfalls and triumphs. Oates creatively shifts virtually every other chapter into the mind of Ursula and Matt, which eventually blend together as their relationship grows. Their lives mirror each other’s in many ways, and they are able to help each other through the problems they have. The reactions of the students at school feels very realistic because they are unsure of whether they should even talk to Matt and ignore Ursula because she appears different from everyone else. I love the way Ursula doesn’t care and talks to Matt anyway, and how Matt embraces Ursula’s differences.

In suburbia New York there is an expectation of upholding reputation, which everyone except Ursula seems to follow. Matt’s parents file the lawsuit for defamation of character, fearing the repercussions of having their family name smeared. Ursula’s parents don’t want her to speak up for Matt in fear she will be associated with the alleged crime. Matt’s friends say their parents don’t want them to talk to him because they don’t want them to be involved. And the principal, Mr. Parrish, wants to keep his school in good faith with the community. This is all very emotional, and I like how Oates displays so much of this by using different fonts (for e-mail, for the beginning line of each chapter, for the newspaper clippings).

Big Mouth & Ugly Girl could be used to discuss alienation, bullying, and unprecedented judgment of others. So much of this occurs on a daily basis, and it can be emotionally destructive to those experiencing it. Discussing the effects of such behavior and how it truly can make teenagers feel unwanted and like they want to die would be a good suicide prevention technique as well.