In the Warehouse
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| "In the Warehouse" | |
|---|---|
| Short story by Joyce Carol Oates | |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Publication | |
| Published in | Transatlantic Review |
| Publication date | Summer 1967 |
"In the Warehouse" is a short story by Joyce Carol Oates originally published in Transatlantic Review (Summer 1967) and first collected in The Goddess and Other Women (1974) by Vanguard Press.[1]
The story is told in the first-person and in the present tense by the 12-year-old protagonist, Sarah.
Sarah is a companion to Ronnie, age 13 who lives in a low-income working-class neighborhood. Sarah's family is orderly and stable. Ronnie is a neglected child in an impoverished family of five children raised by a single mother. Big for her age, Ronnie bullies and dominates the smaller Sarah, both physically and verbally. After rubbing Sarah's face in the dirt at the playground Ronnie admonishes her: "I didn't mean to hurt you, but you had it coming. Right? You gotta do what I say. If we're friends you got to obey me, don't you?"[2] Sarah submits to her "friend," who has known one another for only two months.
At nightfall, Ronnie insists they visit an abandoned warehouse. Both girls are familiar with the derelict building. As they stroll along the sidewalk, local boys good-naturedly mock Ronnie and she responds with a four-letter word, eliciting laughs. Sarah is ignored. Ronnie, who disparages the locals residents, tells Sarah of her elaborate plans for revenge, involving "certain acts with shears, razors, ice picks, butcher knives..."[3] These threats sicken Sarah, but she remains in thrall of Ronnie. She secretly wishes to be free of Ronnie: "She is like a big hulking dead body tied to me."[4] Inside the warehouse, Sarah pleads with Ronnie to follow her upstairs so they can look out the windows.
Sarah reaches the top of the stairs first and turns. As Ronnie is two steps below, Sarah shoves her, sending her tumbling and screaming down the stairs. Sarah descends to find a broken and bleeding body; Ronnie pleads "Sarah! Ma!...Ma, help me!"[5] Sarah returns home and sleeps soundly.
The narrator, Sarah, comments on the incident 20 years later. She reflects that she feels no remorse for her homicidal assault, and never has. She is married with two children, lives in a comfortable suburb, and enjoys a career as a professional writer. She concludes: "My stories are more real than my childhood; my childhood is just another story, but one written by someone else."[6]