Comparing Joyce Carol Oates 'Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been'

boys to live out her childish delusions of romance and allows herself to be swept away by this

The movie ‘Smooth Talk’ and the story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” (1970), are two related pieces. Both tell the same story just in two different ways. The reading and the movie can compare to real life scenarios. Although they are related in many ways, they have a few differences. For example, at the ending of the movie, it did not go into as much details as the story did; both the movie and the story focus on the separation of understanding that Connie and her mother has. In this essay, I will focus on the similarities and differences of both the movie and the story.

Joyce Carol Oakes’s short story, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” was written in 1966 and twenty years later was made into a movie entitled Smooth Talk, winner of the 1985 U.S. Film Festival for best dramatic picture. The writing by Oates is loosely based on a true story described as “the tale of Charles Schmid, a twenty-three-year-old who cruises teenage hangouts, picking up girls for rides in his gold convertible” (Johnson 160). I say “loosely based” since the author purposely omits facts that she has read in newspaper and magazine articles, facts that would lend humanness to the demonic nature of a man she has cleverly and ironically named Arnold

“Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been”, is one of the many short stories written by Mrs. Joyce Carol Oates that has become highly recognized. It was inspired by a magazine story about a serial killer. It quickly it became very popular andwas even the basis for the 1985 hit movie, “SmoothTalk”. Like many other short stories and novels written by Joyce Carol Oates, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” is a story that is consumed by evil, the theme. In the story evil is projected through the eyes of the characters.(Weinberger 207) Joyce Carol Oates has been labeled by many as a, “writer of psychological realism”(Wegs 69), which is seen in this story. Tied

Communication in the family allows parents to not become strangers to their children and provide them with a better education. Therefore, a family that communicates is a close family. Nevertheless, there is no family free from a bad relationship and in every family problems will always exist. Perhaps, many agree that the main cause of these bad relationships between parents and adolescents is due to poor communication. This lack of communication is clearly seen in the short story of “Where are you going, Where have you been?” by Joyce Carol Oates, which shows a great example of this deficiency between the teenage daughter and her parents which takes an adverse ending.

In the two stories “First Confession” and “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been”, the two main characters are Connie and Jackie. They both are in situations where they are living lies until forced to confront the truth about themselves. Even though in Connie’s case it could lead to her death, this act of confrontation is freeing to both of them spiritually. In the story “First Confession”, the author Frank O’Connor does not use any references that relate it back to events in history. Regardless of this, there is some developments of context to Catholicism. The story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” by Joyce Carol Oates is inspired by four murders. Therefore, both Connie and Jackie find themselves at a crossroads to find the

Dreams can be really realistic. “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” is a fictional short story by Joyce Carol Oates, in which Connie is visited by Arnold Friend in a dream. Through plot, characterization, and setting, Joyce Carol Oates successfully proves that Connie dreams the entire visitation from Arnold Friend.

As the story progresses, it is Sunday morning and her family is getting ready to attend a family bar-b-queue. However, Connie insists on not attending and is left alone at home. As she is washing her hair, she hears an unfamiliar car driving up to her house and her heart begins to pound for she does not want the visitor to see her undone. When Arnold Friend, a man she has seen at the restaurant before, but has never spoken to, shows up on her doorstep, she is someone curious as to why he is visiting her. Throughout the scene, he is attempting to persuade Connie into taking a ride with him and his friend Ellie. The more he speaks to her, he reveals to her that he knows many things about her such as her friends, her name, and family and where they are currently at. As the scene develops, Connie no longer has interest in Arnold for she now is scared and is fearful of what his intentions are.

“Where are going, where have you been?” is a short story that was written by Joyce Carol Oates. She is an American author born in the year 1938 in Lockport, New York. Oates has published a number of novels and many books of poetries, short stories, and nonfiction. The main character in the Carol’s story is Connie, even though there are others, such as Connie’s mother, Connie’s sister called June, Arnold Friend, who is a friend of Ellie, and Ellie, who is a friend of Connie (Gratz 55).

Arnold’s violence, even though her family cares for her, and that is something truly scary. Violence and abuse could happen to anyone. It disregards their family, privilege, or social standing. Arnold only saw Connie across the parking lot at the drive-thru restaurant. She had not done anything to offend him; her flirty behavior caused him to single her

After reading "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?", I was quite disturbed as to why anybody would write a story about a young girl being stalked and possibly raped and murdered. I wondered what had happened in Joyce Oates life that had caused her to have the desire to use her literary skills to craft such a story. It seemed senseless to me until I read through the discussion prompt for this post and saw the link about Charles Schmid. After reading the article and doing some more research on Charles Schmid, I found that it is widely known that Oates wrote this short story as a response to reading a Time magazine article about him and the three young girls that he killed. The headlines in the nation focused on the depravity of American

In the short story, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”, Joyce Carol Oates explores the dynamics of feminism through the protagonist, Connie. The constant biblical allusions, historically contexted religious oppression, and perhaps even an encounter with the Devil himself, all embody the hellish connotations associated with the liberation of sexuality, a connotation that feminist movements sought to abolish.

The conventional values American citizens associate with their country create a cultural paradox. Every day, millions of Americans endeavor to articulate the essence of the nation by describing the population as “indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” An examination of American history quickly exposes the national pledge as an oath of deceit; a climate of segregation, inequity, and corruption exists at the core of social and political environments. The continuous presence of civil unrest inspires minorities to advocate for change through various movements in the public and private spheres. Historically, the feminist movement of the nineteen sixties marks a major transitional phase for the subaltern population of American women. Advocates of the movement address the various oppressions that continue to exist in American culture; such as issues relating to violence against women, political injustices, reproductive rights, and inequality in the workforce. The subordination of the female sex resulting from the masculine dominance in the public sphere is a central theme in postmodern literature, including Joyce Carol Oates’ publication "Where are You Going, Where Have You Been." In the short story, Oates criticizes the patriarchal culture of American society by characterizing the male roles as oppressors of the female gender.

In a tale that takes one through the events leading up to the horrifying death of a naive teenage girl. The short story written by award winning author Joyce Carol Oates “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” (rpt. in Greg Johnson and Thomas R. Arp, Perrine’s Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense, 12th ed. [Boston: Wadsworth, 2015] 487-500) reads as if it should be mandatory research for pre-teens and parents alike. It portrays why parents should be involved in their children’s life, knowing who they are with and what they are doing. The story also explains why young adults exploring their new found freedom still need and should keep their guardians involved in their life.

During the 1960s powerful ideas blossomed into movements that possessed almost every being. Music, drugs, and sexuality held deep influences to the actions throughout American society. Teenagers maturing through this evolution had impacted individual values and beliefs. This, however, was said to have brought rebellion and mischief to the minds of teenagers in this era. In the short story, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates, she writes to express her disapproval of the changes in the teenagers of the 1960s that was caused by the cultural movements during that time period.