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Emma Sheikh
Mr. Hackney
English: Rhetoric 101
13 November 2014
It's All Your Parents' Fault
The study of the human mind has been present for centuries. The mind controls how we
move, speak, and act among many other things. But the human mind can also be greatly affected
by good and bad past experiences. Joyce Carol Oatess short story Heat, demonstrates how the
upbringings of Rhea and Rhoda Kunkel and Roger Whipple directly correlate to the actions and
how the characters interact with each other.
Rhea and Rhoda, the twins, are brought up in such a way that it affects how they treat the
people around them. The twins are the youngest of eight children and are the main focus of their
mother. Their mother is said to have let herself go in order to further focus on the twins and does
not, under any circumstances, punish them. On the other hand, their father would tease them and
mix them up like it was too much trouble to keep names straight (Oates 612). The difference in
attitude towards the twins between their mother and father is significant and later impacts the
way the twins treat others.
All the behavior that Rhea and Rhoda exhibit can directly correlate to how they were
raised. Lois Tyson explains this using the Freud Theory. Tyson states how people like to test
their limits and see exactly what they can accomplish with immoral behavior. Rhea and Rhoda
are so incredibly in control of their mother that they believe they can also control everyone else
around them. Even though they have many friends and are greatly loved by their mother, Rhea
and Rhoda make choices that are morally questionable. For example, the narrator recalls a time

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when the twins made her strip off all her clothes after they had all crawled under the Kunkels
veranda. Rhea and Rhoda would not let her out until she had completely striped, after which they
said, this is to show our power over you (Oates 612). Though the twins would give their
friends nice things like candy bars, nail polish, or novelty key chains they did not treat their
friends as though they were such. Rhea and Rhoda always had some form of control over their
mother when they were growing up and are now attempting to exhibit that same control over
others.
Another possible theory, one the narrator first thought of, is that Rhea and Rhodas deaths
were caused by their own immoral actions. The one action in particular that the narrator is
speaking about is [Rhea and Rhoda] had stolen six dollars from their grandmother who loved
them (Oates 607). Even though Rhea and Rhoda have always gotten anything and everything
they have ever wanted they continue to test their limits with immoral behavior. The narrator
believes the twins are killed as punishment for their actions.
Roger Whipple is another prime example of how upbringing can affect the actions a
person takes later in life. Rogers father would discipline Roger the way you might discipline a
big dog or a horse (Oates 610) and his brothers would treat him mercilessly and work him
like a horse (Oates 611). Rogers home consisted of nothing but a bed and some furniture in
an unheated storage space on the second floor of the Whipple house, the police said it was like
an animal pen (Oates 616). These harsh treatments would ultimately lead to Roger killing Rhea
and Rhoda due to repression. Repression is the psychological attempt by an individual to repel
one's own desires and impulses toward pleasurable instincts by excluding the desire from one's
consciousness and holding or subduing it in the unconscious (Tyson 18). Even though Roger is
treated like an animal he does not act out or retaliate in any way. This is his repression. Roger is

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repressing unexpressed anger and sadness that then resurfaces when he is in his room with Rhea
and Rhoda resulting in their violent deaths.
In sum, the upbringing and past experiences that Rhea and Rhoda Kunkel and Roger
Whipple experienced directly affected the outcome of their lives. Rhea and Rhodas deaths,
while ultimately caused by Roger, were brought on by their treatment of Roger Whipple and
those around them as well as their own immoral actions. Rogers actions were provoked by his
familys treatment and the repression of his emotions. Overall, the treatment of children and the
way they are brought up can negatively affect that child's future actions, personality, and life
choice.

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Works Cited
Oates, Joyce Carol. "Heat." The Oxford Book of American Short Stories. Ed. Joyce Carol
Oates. New York: Oxford UP, 1992. 607-619. Print.
Tyson, Lois. Critical Theory Today. New York: Garland, 1999. Print.