"We Were the Mulvaneys" by Joyce Carol Oates.

The book, "We Were the Mulvaneys" by Joyce Carol Oates, is the story of an "all American family" that falls apart after their daughter is raped. The father, who once had a successful roofing company, lets his business slide and devotes his life to alcohol and law suits, and the three brothers either abandon the family or try to find a method of gaining vengeance for their sister. This particular excerpt describes a scene by the brook, where the youngest Mulvaney (Judd) is contemplating life and the shortness of it. This episode occurs before the family initially fell apart. Oates uses…