Big Mouth & Ugly Girl
Joyce Carol Oates
Characters
Ursula Riggs - Ursula is tall and manly and shes not an ordinary girl. She doesn't follow the crowd and always stands up for what she believes in.
Matt Donaghy - Hes tall with red hair and has freckles. Matt has a big mouth and jokes around about a lot of stuff. Hes into theater.
Lisa - Ursula's little sister that gets all the attention from her mother. She is very tiny and skinny. Lisa is a ballerina and she always busy.
Alex - Matts 5th grader little brother.
Ursula's Mom - Shes a typical suburban mom.
Matt's Mom - Matts mom is insecure and just wants to fit in.
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Ursula's Dad - He is the CEO of a big company and is rarely ever home.
Matt's Dad - Hes job makes him travel a lot too, so hes not home very much.
Mr. Parrish -The principle of Rocky River High.
Mr. Weinberg - He teaches english and is Matts favorite teacher.
Reverend "Ike" - He is very obnoxious and has very strong religious views on things.
The Brewer Twins, Muriel and Muriam - The daughters of Reverend Ike who were the witnesses to what Matt said.
Pumpkin - Matts golden retriever.
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Setting
The story takes in Westchester, New York in a suburb named Rocky River. The story takes place in present day.
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Conflicts
There are two major conflicts in this story
Person vs. Society - Matt against all of the students, except Ursula, at Rocky River High. After he was accused of threatening to bomb the school and his parents decided to sue the school all the kids started to bully him.
Person vs. Person - The Donaghy family against Reverend Ike. Reverend Ike and his daughters started all the trouble for Matt. His daughters told Mr. Parrish that they had heard him say he was going to bomb the school during lunch. Reverend Ike called the school pretending to be Matt and threatening to bomb the school.
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Point Of View
The point of view of this story is third person omniscient. You can see into the mind of Usrula, and into the mind of Matt.
"This is so wrong. My God, this is so crazy and so wrong." Ursula thought tho herself.
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Plot Line
Exposition - Ursula is introduced in this story when she is playing in the Tarrytown game. Matt is introduced in the story when he gets pulled out of his fifth hour study hall.
Rising Action - Matt is accused of threatening to bomb the school and is taken to the police station. His friends asked him what would you do if your play wasn't chosen what would you do, and he said "What could i do, blow up the school, massacre a few people?" Ursula Riggs testifies for him and she sticks up for him. The police and principle decide Matt is not guilty. When Matt comes back to school all of his friends were gone, and nobody would talk to him, not even Ursula. Ursula finds out that Muriel and Miriam were the two "witnesses" for Matts bomb scare, and she sticks up for Matt again. Ursula and Matt become really good friends and spend a lot of time together. Matts parents want to sue the school and Reverend "Ike" for mental damage to Matt and all the kids at school call him mean names because of it. Matts dog pumpkin gets stolen by the jocks of the school. There is a fire drill at school, but instead of going in the parking lot like they usually do they go on the other side of the street far away from the school. The police and Principle Parrish come up to Matt and tell him that someone called in with a bomb threat and they think it was related to him.
Climax - The police find out it was Reverend "Ike" who made the call.
Falling Action - Reverend "Ike" has to do jail time and his daughters were expelled to school. Matt slowly got his friends back and was starting to get invited places again.
Resolution - Matt and Ursula going hiking together and they kiss.
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Themes
I think a really good theme in the story is that you know true friends stick around even when times are really tough.
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Recommendations
I really liked this book. It keep me interested the whole time and was an all around good book. I would definitely recommend this book to people.
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Joyce Carol Oates
About the Author
Joyce Caral Oates was born in Lockport, New York on June 16, 1938. She grew up on a farm outside the city and went to a one roomed school. When she transferred to the high school in Lockport, she was an excellent student. She contributed to her high school newspaper and won a scholarship to attend Syracuse University, where she majored in English. When she was only 19, she won the "college short story" contest sponsored by Mademoiselle magazine. Joyce Carol Oates was valedictorian of her graduating class. She has written 56 novels, over 30 collections of short stories.
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