This paper will compare and contrast the short story written by Joyce Carol Oates, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” and Joyce Chopra’s very popular film, Smooth Talk, which is based upon the short story. “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” is told from the point of view of a girl with “long dark blond hair that drew anyone’s eye to it” named Connie. Connie was a very pretty fifteen year old girl, which loved to go out with her friends and meet new people. Laura’s, the best friend of Connie, father “drove the girls the three miles to town and left them at a shopping plaza so they could walk through the stores or go to a movie”. It became a lifestyle for Connie which eventually became a problem being that she met a suspicious …show more content…
In my opinion I think the stories are more alike than different but there were a couple things I did notice. “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” included several things that were failed to be mentioned in the movie Smooth Talk. Toward the beginning of the short story it was mentioned that, Connie “spent three hours with him [Eddie], at the restaurant where they ate hamburgers and drank Cokes in wax cups that were always sweating,” which in fact the film did not include. At the point in time when Connie and Arnold Friend were communicating, the short story mentioned that Connie’s “bright green blouse was all wet” although in the movie her blouse shows white. Also the movie leaves out a certain quote on Arnold Friend’s car. The quote being “MAN THE FLYING SAUCERS,” was “and expression kids had used the year before but didn’t use this year”. Now the movie, Smooth Talk, includes some things as well that were not included in the short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” Being one the movies introduction is a few scenes that include Connie, Laura, and Jill. The opening scene takes place at a beach with the three friends, then they hitch hike a ride back to the shopping mall. At the shopping mall they spend their time chasing after some boys, then later go watch a movie. A night when Connie and Laura go to a drive in restaurant, Connie meets a boy named Jeff. Jeff offers to take her out to eat and Connie accepts. On the way out of the restaurant, Connie sees a man pointing at her and the man says “I’m watching you”. In the short story this same man pointed at her and said “Gonna get you, baby”. Connie and Jeff, who didn’t notice anything, go on with their night and end it with a kiss. The second night comes around at the drive in restaurant where Connie now meets a boy named Eddie. Eddie asked Connie to go out to eat with him, which in fact Connie accepted. The screen play then lead us to the scene
The characterization of Connie in the short story, “Where Are You Going? Where have you been?” affects the theme of who is to blame for the kidnapping by portraying Connie as a pretty girl to into herself, a puerile teenager that cannot decide who to be, and a reluctant girl that ignores her mother. This characterization makes Connie seem immature. When Arnold gets to see Connie, the ignorance and immaturity of Connie gives Arnold Friend the perfect opening to abduct Connie.
“Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” is a short story that is about a fifteen year old pretty teenager named Connie, who does not get along with her mother and is irritated by her sister. Her sister can do no wrong in her mother's eyes while she is constantly getting criticized. Connie enjoys listening to music, watching movies, and spends a lot of time going out with her best friend and meeting boys. Until one day, a creepy guy, she had seen out one night shows up in her driveway when her family is out. He introduces himself as Arnold Friend and insists that Connie go for a ride with him and threatens to harm her family if she doesn't. In the story, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates portrays Arnold Friend as a rapist; he creates the climax of the story in which Connie is taken from her home and family, by him through violent means.
Joyce Carol Oates’s short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” clearly illustrates the loss of innocence adolescents experience as they seek maturity, represented by Connie's dangerous encounter with Arnold Friend. Connie symbolizes the many teens that seek independence from their family in pursuit of maturity. Connie’s great desire to grow up is apparent from the beginning of the story, as she experiments with her sexuality. However, it is clear that Connie is not interested in pursuing a relationship, but relishes the maturity she feels after being with the opposite sex. After following a boy to his car, she was “gleaming with a joy that had nothing to do with Eddie or even this place” (2). This suggests that Connie's exploits
“Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? “tells a story of teenage girl Connie, whose wild child antics cause her to become the special interest of Arnold Friend. Spending time at the local hangout for older kids, and committing lustful acts in alleys, Connie disregards the odd brown haired boy in the gold jalopy staring her way. Unnoticing Arnold until the Sunday afternoon his gold jalopy pulls up her drive. “ He wasn’t tall, only an inch or so taller than she would be if she came down to him … his face was a familiar face, somehow: the jaw chin and cheeks slightly darkened, because he hadn’t shaved for a day or two, and the nose long and hawk –like” (Oates 441). Intrigued by his looks, Conni...
Joyce Carol Oates' "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" is about a young girl's struggle to escape reality while defying authority and portraying herself as a beauty queen; ultimately, she is forced back to reality when confronted by a man who symbolizes her demise. The young girl, Connie, is hell- bent on not becoming like her mother or sister. She feels she is above them because she is prettier. She wants to live in a "dream world" where she listens to music all day and lives with Prince Charming. She does not encounter Prince Charming but is visited by someone, Arnold Friend, who embodies the soul of something evil. Arnold Friend symbolizes "Death" in that he is going to take Connie away from the world she once knew. Even if she is not dead, she will never be the same person again, and will be dead in spirit. With the incorporation of irony, Oates illustrates how Connie's self-infatuation, her sole reason for living, is the reason she is faced with such a terrible situation possibly ending her life.
In “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”, Oates wants to show a more intellectual and symbolic meaning in this short story. Oates has many symbolic archetypes throughout the short story along with an allegory. Oates uses these elements in her story by the selection of detail and word choice used. Oates does this because she wants to teach her audience a moral lesson.
The open ended design of “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” leaves what happens to Connie to the reader’s interpretation but it also brings to question how it could’ve gone for her if she hadn’t been ignorant and self obsessed and whether if she would’ve been kidnapped either way. Everything can be good in moderation, whether it be the blissfulness of ignorance or the confidence that comes with small amounts of narcissism, but without moderation these ideals can be detrimental to what happens to those who go too
She immediately trusts him because they simply like the same radio station. The young girl has proven throughout the story that she is curious about sex. The reader also learns that she loves attention and Connie initially finds the attention that she is receiving by Friend to be rather flattering and the fact that she thinks he’s an older boy intrigues even more. Her fate though, seems to fit the extremist world in which she inhabits. A habitat where women are viewed by men as objects of beauty for their consumption. Connie later realizes that something is odd about Arnold. She notices that the slogans on his car are outdated. She notices his painted face, his wig, and his boots. Susan Nyikos was another writer that wrote an analysis on Where are you going, where have you been. She suggested that the reason Connie realized this was because he was only a figment of her imagination and that she had never awaken from her nap. Nyikos also noted that another critic stated that Arnold Friend was the devil and that’s what explained the hooves hidden by the boots. What Susan mainly argued was that “Like many of Oates's stories, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” is based on real events—the story of a "tabloid psychopath known as 'The Pied Piper of Tucson'" whose specialty was the seduction and occasional murder of teen-aged girls,"
Joyce Carol Oates' short story "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" written in the late sixties, reveals several explanations of its plot. The story revolves around a young girl being seduced, kidnapped, raped and then killed. The story is purposely vague and that may lead to different interpretations. Teenage sex is one way to look at it while drug use or the eerie thought that something supernatural may be happening may be another. The story combines elements of what everyone may have experienced as an adolescent mixed with the unexpected dangers of vanity, drugs, music and trust at an early age. Ultimately, it is up to the reader to choose what the real meaning of this story is. At one point or another one has encountered, either through personal experience or through observation, a teenager who believes that the world is plotting against them. The angst of older siblings, peer pressure set upon them by their friends, the need for individualism, and the false pretense that at fifteen years of age, they are grown are all factors which affect the main character in this story.
”Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been?” is a short story written by Joyce Carol Oates, which explores the life of a teenage girl named Connie. One of the issues this story divulges is the various stresses of adolescence. Connie, like so many others, is pressured to conform according to different social pressures, which displays the lack of respect female adolescents face. The music culture, young men, and family infringe upon young female minds to persuade them to look or act in certain ways, showing a disrespect for these girls. While some perhaps intend their influence for good, when put into practice, the outcome often has a negative effect. Moreover, this can lead young women to confusion and a lack of self-respect, which proves
Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? is about a teenage girl named Connie, that tell us about her life who has no guidance in life, because her family has not provided any moral support to help through her teenage life. She only knows about popular culture and not the consequences that comes with it. Without proper direction to face her problems. There are different types of conflict in this story.
Oates, Joyce Carol. “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been”. Backpack Literature. An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. Ed. X.J. Kennedy & Dana Gioia. 4th ed. New Jersey: Pearson, 2006. (323-336). Print.
In the two short stories, "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" by Joyce Carol Oates, the narrator of "The Yellow Wallpaper" and Connie from "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" both deal with some eerie situations. In "The Yellow Wallpaper" written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the narrator suffers from nervous depression which causes her to stay locked in this room doing nothing active until she actually goes hopelessly insane. The short story, "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" written by Joyce Carol Oates, Connie deals with a stranger named Arnold Friend and he sees Connie outside of the movie theatre and he actually ends up going to her house and he knows everything about her and her family. Due to the characterization of the two stories, Connie and the Narrator both end up making these two different stories very similar because of how creepy each person makes their life seem.
In “Where are you going, where have you been?” the setting of the story is not revealed at the beginning. The reader slowly learns about Connie’s family and her living conditions throughout the story. In “Hills Like Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway, there is no dramatic situation at the beginning of the story either, rather He starts by giving us a detailed description of the setting. The reader gets a clear mental image of where the story will take place.
As I began reading “Where are you going, where have you been?” by Joyce Carol Oates I found myself relating the experiences of Connie, the girl in the story, to my own personal experiences. She spoke of going to a friend’s house and having her friend’s father drive them to the shopping mall so that they could walk around and socialize or go see a movie. I found that this related very closely with my own experiences of being fifteen years old because it was always someone else’s parents driving my friends and I to the movies or to the mall.