Сад радостей земных

In the work of the American writer Joyce Carol Oates, there is a clear interest in a strong non-standard personality. The heroine of the novel `The Garden of Earthly Delights` Clara Walpole combines a rude `animal` beginning and a lofty spirit. Their struggle determines the female fate of Clara - her life has become only a chain of unrealized opportunities and bitter disappointments. But the worst thing she had to endure was the death of her only son. Flesh from the mother's flesh, he follows in her footsteps in life and, seeing the perniciousness of this path, commits suicide ... However, Clara is not a negative character. Joyce Carol Oates appreciates her impulse, impulsiveness, disregard for conventions, which, from her point of view, should be inherent in any real woman to one degree or another.