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Smooth Talk Essay

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Giving Justice to the Original:
Smooth Talk and Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? Ideas for the story lines of many motion pictures get their inspiration from other works of writing often. Books are usually a main source of inspiration for movies, for instance, the movie Smooth Talk was based off of Joyce Carol Oates’ short story Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?. Most of the time however, you hear that the movie did not give justice to the book. Smooth Talk is an exception to this common conception. By keeping the main thematic issues of teenage ignorance and arrogance, and same symbiotic relevance throughout the movie gives the movie the same impact as the book, even though it has additional occurrences. …show more content…

In Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? You don’t get a sense of Connie and any of her family members and how the live together, all you get is that her father isn’t involved, her mother is jealous of her looks, and her sister is accepted by her family, though she’s dull compared to Connie. The movie enhances these miniscule explanations of Connie’s family life. It shows how they all used to be so close, and she used to look up to her sister. Also how her mother does sincerely care about her and is worried about what she is getting into. Though it shows the sincere and loving side, it shows also how her mother is very hard on her, calls her rude names, and has crude speculations of her daughter. By showing more into the relationship Connie has with them gives the story more of an understanding of why she breaks out like she does and why she has to live her “double life” with the different clothes, body image, etc. Having a common threatening, horrifying occurrence and antagonist is also how Smooth Talk can give justice to a great short story by Joyce Carol Oates. Arnold Friend or “an old fiend” if you remove the R’s represents the outcome of irresponsible teenage behavior. By his character being inspired by a serial killer you get the horror struck feeling when he is around youth, more specifically the tactless Connie. The character of Arnold Friend, like how the review by Joyce M. Wegs, is one that represents a symbiotic Satan. The fact

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