Before Bellefleur even begins, Joyce Carol Oates dedicates a whole page of her masterpiece novel to Heraclitus' quote, "Time is a game of draughts; the kingship is in the hands of a child." It is only in retrospect, after the destruction of Bellefleur manor and the end of the novel, that we can truly appreciate this classical reference. Draughts is a British word for what we now call the game of checkers, but its earlier meaning is "a move in chess." Keeping this definition in mind, and veering slightly away from the emphasis Germaine receives in the novel, Bromwell Bellefleur is the most likely candidate to conceptualize how best to play this game. The theme of Bellefleur is, as Oates herself has stated, "Our past may weigh heavily upon us but it cannot contain us, let alone shape our future." It is this very concept that drives Bromwell to understand the past, the future, and most importantly his relationship to them both. It is my contention that if there is a single character that stands out as a hero in Bellefleur, it is the young boy who, "Long before [he] made his name-his name-in the vast shadowy world south of the mountains he liked to pronounce…that a 'curse' was unlikely; but if indeed one could chart the undulating pattern of something that resembled a 'curse' through generations of the same family, no doubt it could claim some scientific validity: as genetic inheritance, not as superstitious crap"(33). As well as serving as an unlikely form of American un-rugged individualism, Oates's characterization of Germaine's older brother serves two other purposes that help add depth and delight to Bellefleur. Bromwell embodies logic, progress, and knowledge (all of the things which Oates herself has a high regard for and deals with regularly in her work). His characterization also shows an amazing outlet of Oates's delightful, if not sometimes twisted, sense of humor, or irony.

In examining what I have coined, Bromwell's American un-rugged individualism, it is essential to look at his physical features. Described as "clerkish and prematurely balding, even as a small child, with his delicate wire-rimmed glasses and his austere pale forehead," he is the anti-Bellefleur from the beginning (33). We begin to learn slowly throughout the story how Bromwell operates in his eccentric surroundings. He studies his mother Leah, as she repeatedly wins all the games played with the children when she is pregnant with Germaine. He reaches the conclusion scientifically saying, "My statistics, and the odds against your winning, which are incredibly multiplied with each new game"(65). Leah slaps at him and damns him to hell. It is here that we see Bromwell pull away from his family. It is very uncommon to see Bromwell with other members of the family after this episode, unless of course he is doing experiments. In The Vial of Poison, we see that the child, "had acquired a remarkable library himself, and never exactly with anyone's permission: the child simply ordered what he liked-a complete set of the World Book, volumes on biology, astronomy, chemistry, physics, mathematics and even a telescope kit…"(109). Bromwell continues this forging ahead on his own. We see later when he "wrote a highly formal letter to the Mount Ellesmere Institute for Advanced Study in Astronomy" requesting an admission packet. His long-term patience and planning are shown to us when he saves "in a local bank" the cash gifts to the sum of $3000. One day he burns all his family photos and "whistling a cheerful, tuneless little air" strolls off to seek his future (at Mount Ellesmere Institute) which despite learning of his success there, we never learn if he actually got accepted or simply went there and demanded admission (399-402). The next time we see Bromwell he is an esteemed professor at Mount Ellesmere who has written a book that proves "that the future as well as the past were contained in the sky" as he had contemplated since his youth (545). My main argument for Bromwell's hero-like role in Bellefleur is contained in Oates's description of Bromwell's book "A Hypothesis Concerning Anti-Matter" that was, "prefaced with an enigmatic and loosely translated remark of Heraclitus, on the nature of time: or, rather, on the nature of our conception of time"(544).

Oates's is tremendously concerned with the "narrowing of the American dream that has been 'snatched up by a political economic order'"(159, Showalter). We have seen this theme in Black Water and "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?". It only seems natural that Oates addresses this nearly obsessive issue in Bellefleur as well (just as Bromwell has obsessed over the nature of time and space). What is even more interesting is when you think of Joyce Carol Oates as Bromwell Bellefleur. The brilliant, yet physically feeble, school girl living in a blue-collar town, forging her way, through studies and academia, to achieve the prominent success as one of America's premier writers, a scholar at Princeton University, and an editor/owner of her own literary magazine. Oates, as well as Bromwell, embodies this American dream and clearly, by placing the same Heraclitus quote in Professor Bellefleur's book, she has placed herself in the novel as Bromwell, the least likely to survive of all the Bellefleurs. Oates may be making another statement by creating Bromwell in her own image. In her constant effort to avoid being labeled a feminist writer, coupled with the harsh truth that opportunities are still more accessible to men than women in contemporary America. It is more than likely that a male would achieve this type of success (given the limited options and ideologies of the young Bellefleur women). She is compelled to address this issue as skillfully as possible. It is through her self-characterization in Bromwell that she subtly achieves her personal voice in the novel.

Bromwell also offers us humorous moments, quite often in the oddest of places, in this gothic masterpiece. It starts, of course, upon our first introduction to him, when he claims that the Bellefleur "curse" as "superstitious crap" (33). The imagery of a conniving six-year-old mail-ordering telescopes and encyclopedias. The youngster who "until Leah put a stop to it suddenly, had been weighing and measuring and minutely examining his baby sister day by day, and experimenting with her ability to focus her eyes, to grasp at objects…he was keeping a fastidious record of the baby's growth for scientific purposes"(145). Bromwell's elaborate experimentation of Germaine's powers in his laboratory (227-229), his "scientific detachment" in pointing out that a carrion-eater (The Noir Vulture) would not kill and devour living things (303), as well as his endless turmoil with "well intentioned and ignorant, or deliberately malicious and ignorant" instructors at New Hazleton (399) are terribly funny episodes in a book of Gothic Horror. Of all the strange and humorous oddities that Bromwell creates or encounters it is his level headed "voice" or perception of the event that is the most delightful. From our first meeting on, Bromwell sees and reacts to his world quite differently than others, yet always in the same analytical mode (written by Oates with the driest of humors).

In summation, I believe Bromwell Bellefleur is the child that holds the "kingship". It is quite evident that his desire acquired early in life to "know" the universe and escape the Bellefleurs establishes him as the main character to watch when concerned with the future. He is self-defined, never by his parents or their name. His work is his way out. Bromwell is not the rugged individual popularized in literature by Franklin, Thoreau, and Cooper, he does however take all matters into his own hands and claims his place in America. He is also Oates's "portal" into the novel itself. We have seen the numerous parallels between Bromwell and Oates (especially revealing was the Heraclitus quote). Where Bromwell ends and Oates begins is nearly impossible to tell. It is also the humor that Bromwell adds to the story that makes him so memorable. This humor adds a satirical dimension to Bellefleur and places Oates among some of the best satirists. There is one sure-fire way to comprehend the full impact of Bromwell's character on Bellefleur. Imagine the novel without him.