A Good Man Is Hard To Find And Where Are You Going Where Have You Been Analysis

In comparing and contrasting Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man is Hard to Find” and Joyce Carol Oates's “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” the stories contain very different plots, but they both have similarities between the characters Arnold Friend and Misfit. They appear to be mentally unstable and highly selfish by only caring about their needs. For example, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” Arnold Friend shows his mentality and selfishness by harming the main character Connie by being highly persistent. In "A Good Man is Hard to Find” the Misfit showed his mentality and selfishness by killing the grandmother when she was trying to bring out faith and his good side when the situation escalated when the car crashed. Regardless of these two completely different stories, there are several similarities between the characters Arnold Friend and Misfit in their personalities.

"Where are you going where have you been?" is a short story about a young 15 year old girl who is trying to fit in with the rest of the world, and is very preoccupied with her appearance and living in this pop cultural fantasy. Connie is always ignoring her mother 's criticism about wanting her to be more like her older sister, June, who is no longer living a life of fantasy and has her act together.. One night, a boy named Eddie invites Connie to eat dinner with him, and Connie leaves her friend at the restaurant’s counter to go with him. As Connie and Eddie leave the restaurant, she sees a man in a gold convertible in the parking lot. He smiles at her and says, “Gonna get you, baby.”. Connie confused, walks away quickly confused not really knowing what actually happened, and Eddie notices nothing. They spend three hours of their night at dinner, and end up going to a nearby alley living in that fantasy of being that mature woman who knows what a man wants. One day, Connie 's parents and June leave her at home to go to a family barbeque leaving her all by herself. While she was at home alone, she was listening to her radio when out of nowhere she hears a car pull up to the front of her house. Startled, she looks out of the window to see

While reading, "A Good Man Is Hard To Find" and "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been" the readers find themselves lost in worlds of suspense, horror and comic relief through tone and symbolism. Although, the stories contain very different plots, they both have a sense of "good vs. evil."

Each author designs the characters to stand out in the culture around them. Connie, in “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been,” is a vein, conceited, teenage girl who frequently fibs to her friends’ parents about what they have been doing and their whereabouts. Even though this probably seems pretty ideal to your definition of an unruly American teenager, Connie is much more

By the end of the story ‘Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?’ Connie proves that her persona of being and acting like a mature adult is just an act. Connies relationship with her family makes her feel as if acting like an adult and receiving attention from boys and older men will help her escape from

The story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” is essentially about a young woman’s strive for independence, which eventually leads to conflict. Oates portrays a social issue that relates to today’s society by using symbolism and characterization. She takes you on a journey throughout a teenagers life, tells about her thoughts and feelings while also relating to naïve girls today. Connie is a symbol of young girls who try to rush and grow up too fast. The ones who want to be popular with all the boys.

One of her traits is that she was single-minded in the beginning of the story where she only cares about her appearance to attract the males’ attention. She had no self-preservation or cautiousness in her actions and what kind of consequences can back fire on her. According to Oates, Connie’s mother believes that Connie’s mind is constantly “filled with trashy daydreams” of nonsense and irrelevant things that will not further improve her livelihood (1097). Her next trait is that she was self-indulgent because she tends to go wherever and whomever she wants. Such as when she and her friends were supposed to go to the movies, they instead go to “a drive-in restaurant where older kids hung out” (1098). Lastly, her third major trait is that she is vindictive towards her mother. In the title “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” it indicates the mother’s voice of the story in which she constantly berates Connie for her misbehaviors. However, Connie’s vindictiveness comes from the fact that June receives all the praises from her mother’s which leads to why Connie reacts the way she does. Thus, this gives Connie the motive to dress and act a certain way to ignite her mother’s fury. Nonetheless, along the way of this vindictive childlike display, this characteristic became Connie’s personality as a person for which she seeks among other peers such as

In the very first sentence of "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" a lively 15-year-old girl named Connie is introduced to the reader as the main character. At the beginning of the short story it was apparent that Connie wouldn't change her controlling tendencies. Connie becomes a dynamic character at the end of the story because she allows herself to be submissive to Arnold Friend's perpetual beckoning for a date.

In the story A Good Man Is Hard To Find, a family is off on a vacation to Tennessee. In the midst of their journey they are encountered by a wanted criminal, The Misfit. In brief summary, the grandmother leads the rest of the family down a dirt road that she has mistaken for a road she used to live on. While driving down this road, they flip the car over in a ditch. At this point they are confronted by The Misfit who has witnessed this accident. The setting in this story began playing a big part a while before when the grandmother was alerting the family of the known Misfit being on the loose. At this point I interpreted that later in the story, the family would encounter this man. On the scene of the accident, I really came to terms with how troubled

“Where are you going, where have you been?” is a deep story that takes you on a rebellious trip as the character goes through her own self-created illusions to come to terms with her sexual inexperience. She is confused between what is real and what is not real by a dream that is a manifestation of Connie’s desires for attention from the opposite sex. Through this journey, she finds herself and leaves her selfishness behind.

From the novel “Where are going, where have you been?” to the big screen Smooth Talk, Joyce Carol Oates and film director Joyce Chopra have brought up some eye opening questions to the audience. The film is about a flirtatious self-absorbed teenage girl who is soon to be a sophomore in high school. Throughout the film she shows an uncontrollable behavior as she flirts with boys and goes window shopping in a mall. In the movie Connie proves that she is different from her mom. Connie’s actions will come back and have her experience a life changing event after her family leaves to a barbeque. This will leave Connie home alone and vulnerable. A stranger,who will be later identified as Arnold Friend, will arrive at Connie’s home and ask to take her out for a ride. Hesitated and scared Connie will eventually change her mind and leave with Arnold. Connie will

“Hiriam and Bobby Lee returned from the woods and stood over the ditch, looking down at the grandmother who half sat and half lay on a puddle of blood with her legs crossed under her like a child’s and her face smiling up at the cloudless sky” (O’Connor 377). The moment of grace is a significant occurrence in the short story, in the Catholic terminology, the moment of grace is a special gift from God, in which God suddenly fills her with almost supernatural love and understanding. “The Misfit” murders the grandmother, she has already redeemed herself, she has accepted the fact that she is going to die therefore she dies with a smile on her face, peacefully. “Redemption is possible only through an extreme act, an act of absolute, irrevocable

In the story of Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been Oates writes about a chain of events through the point of view of Connie. In the beginning Connie describes a normal outing with her friend and an encounter with a boy named Eddie. During Connie’s hanging out with Eddie she spots a man staring at her. Later her parents, whom Connie is not on the greatest terms with, and her sister go to a barbeque leaving Connie alone at home. The same man from her outing arrives at her house and offers to

The first sentence in the story reveals to us that the grandmother is the main character in the story, and that she doesn’t want to go to Florida, which suggests something bad is going to happen if she does go to Florida. The author’s intent in “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” is to show, as the title suggests, that a good man is hard to find.

A good man really is hard to find. But what is the real definition of a real man? Maybe it is not just the prince charming you see in fairy tales or the perfect guy walking down Sixth Ave. that you pass by everyday to work. Maybe a good guy is simply someone that is good what they do. In this case the relationship between the grandmother and the misfit is just that. The only thing is if the reader sees it as clearly as the author would like them too or simply as she does.