The present paper is a stylistic approach to the linguistic representation
of the state of mind of Ilena, the protagonist of the short story
“The Dead” by Joyce Carol Oates. Ilena is deeply attracted by paradox
and carries out this principle in all the realms of her life. She not only
experiments with the opposite effects of drugs, but also practices contradiction
in her sexual and professional life. This complex fictional
attitude is conveyed by a number of linguistic and narrative devices,
which we have called the “rhetoric of contradiction”, consisting in the
pervasive use of oxymoron and opposition.The story is also held together
by a scientific frame related to Ilena’s drug-taking habits. This
frame provides cohesion and coherence to the different episodes of the
otherwise achronological narrative, and also foregrounds the
macrostructure of paradox, since the drugs provoke “adverse reactions”
in the protagonist, who constantly stands between life and death.
