Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? and How I Met My Husband

The story by Joyce Carol Oates “Where Are You Going, Where Have You been?” published in 1969 and the film “smooth talk” 1985, explores the life of a beautiful fifteen-year-old girl Connie. Like normal teenagers, she’s at the age where they begin to explore their sexual desires and disrespect her parents. Her father is unconcerned and her mother is critical, Connie prefers to spend her time with her friends than her family. On one summer day, Connie chooses to skip a family barbecue and stay behind while her family goes out. A stranger later reaches to her at home and persuades her to go for a ride. Later Connie realizes the stranger is trying to rape her and probably kill her. She becomes scared and when she arrives home, she tries to mend her relationship with her mother and family (HANLON). The purpose of this paper is to critique the movie smooth talk by comparing and contrasting it to the short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates.

Where there is desire, there is hope, despair, and struggle. Joyce Carol Oates illustrates animatedly the asphyxiated struggle of desire in her short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” The story narrates the life of a young girl, named Connie, and her fated and enigmatic confrontation with a strange man. Feeling trapped in her own home with her own family, Connie, a self-conscious and rebellious teenager, tries to figure out a way to identify herself with the world around her. Her desire of escaping the reality fuels her struggle to enter adulthood. Through the physical form of Arnold Friend, who embodies both the hope and the despair in Connie’s struggle, the author metaphorically portrays a vigorous and psychological pressure that Connie has to endure. The story is scripted to allude to the danger of identifying oneself through sexuality in young girls. To better understanding this cryptic story, it is important to follow the psychological processes and conflict of Connie’s character, which help unveil the allegorical meaning of a young girl’s rite of passage through sex.

In the short story “Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been?” both characters, Connie and Arnold, suffer from having dual identities. Connie is an individual who acts completely different outside her home, where she tries to portray an image of being sexually appealing. However, she is the complete opposite within her home, where she hides her sexuality and acts more like the adolescent she really is. Arnold is a mature man, something Connie is looking for in life and this intrigues her. Both characters have trouble with their dual identities, Connie’s leads her to being vulnerable to growing mature in an unpleasant manner by the force of Arnold, while Arnold’s unknown character proves to not be genuine, as Connie brings out his violent nature in her quest to be an independent adult.

In the short story "Where are you going where have you been?" by Joyce Carol Oats and the song Wake Up by EDEN, the author and the artist both show the thematic concepts on how fantasies come to an end, and when reality hits, it hits hard.

Connie is a young fifteen year old who cares about her sexual drive that men have toward her. “The 1960s unleashed the so called sexual revolution. It seemed more a source of comic relief and tragic nostalgic recirculation than political inspiration…” This revolution consisted of women demanding their own rights so they could become more and more independent. There were significant shifts in social attitudes, behaviors, and institutional regulations at the beginning of the 60’s and also lasted through the 70’s. The sexual drive increased majorly and the amount of women that had sex before marriage also sky rocketed. In Where Are you Going, Where Have You Been, Connie wants sexual attention from men, and that hurts her self-confidence and

The Cultural Revolution and Sexual Desires in Oates’s “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been”

In Oates's "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" it portrays the confusing nature of sexuality. A story set in the America of mid-1900s. A conflict of morals characterized this time, especially sexually related ones. There was a hot debate on the topic of sexuality among adolescents. The roles of women were being challenged and quickly changing. This story describes a psychosexual episode between a male predator and the protagonist, a female

Through its contrasting reality and dreamlike scenes, Oates’ “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” uses details from a true American horror story to convey a message about society, youth and a loss of innocence. Arizona native Charles Schmid murdered Alleen Rowe on May 31, 1964. Schmid was considered a serial killer and was subsequently arrested and convicted of the heinous crimes that he was accused of. The profile of Schmid as a short man who wore makeup, wigs and altered boots to make

In the short fiction Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? tells a story about a young 15-year-old girl named, Connie. Connie spends her time meeting boys, lounging around the house and going out with her friends. One night an unusual man makes a threatening gesture to her in the parking lot of a local drive-in restaurant. Until, one day the unusual man pulls up in her driveway in a gold colored car. The man introduces himself as Arnold Friend and asks Connie to join him for a ride. During their conversation, Connie is aware that Arnold is dangerous; his language becomes more sexual and violent, and he warns her that he will hurt her family if she calls the police. In the end, she leaves the house and joins Arnold. Connie is stuck between the lines of her sexual daydreams and reality up until she is entangled among by Arnold Friend and his infatuating music playing in his car. Everything about her had two aspects to it, one when she was at home and one for anywhere but home.

A short story titled "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" tells a tale of an adolescent girl who suffers consequences of growing up in the unsupportive environment and the society preoccupied by the media. It is considered to be the most famous work of Joyce Carol Oates, an American writer, the winner of many significant literary awards and a two- time candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature. The story was first published in the fall of 1966. It is dedicated "to Bob Dylan", as though, after having heard Dylan's song "It's all over now, Baby Blue" Oates got inspiration for the story. She was also influenced by the article about Charles Schmid, a twenty-

Immaturity is a term most commonly associated with adolescence. As a young adolescent, high school is the center of the world and it is difficult to see beyond that. Social status is vital to Connie, the lead character in “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?,” written by Joyce Carol Oats. School is her chance to be who she does not get to be at home. Like Connie, many other adolescents try to act older than they really are. Teenagers are especially prone to this because their brains are not fully developed. As a fifteen year old, Connie is somewhere in between childhood and adulthood. This causes her to struggle with the concept of maturity. Due to her immaturity, Connie confuses her ability to command attention from boys with the desire to have them pursue her sexually. Unable to tell these two apart, Connie is rendered helpless at the hands of the potentially dangerous Arnold Friend.

In the short story, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been,” by Joyce Carol Oates shows the readers similarities to the epic tails of the past. It is to be expected that with the similarities between the story and the epics, that the story does not always end up in just the way the reader thinks they might. Most of today's readers want an ending in which the heroine of the story Connie, ends up getting what she deserves in just about everything. But, looking back to the epic tails almost nothing ever ends in the way the characters deserve to happen. The characters are put through hardships, trails, tribulations, and failings to show that the character is indeed just merely human. However, the journey in which Joyce Carol Oates takes Connie

“How I Met My Husband” by Alice Munro is a short story about Edie, a fifteenth year old girl, who works at Dr. Peebles and Mrs.Peebles house taking care of their children, cleaning the house, preparing the vegetables and occasionally baking desserts. One day they heard a plane pass by, and they ran into the yard to look. Their neighbor Loretta Bird mentioned that the plane was close to hitting their house and began to talk about the plane. She also specified that the pilot received permission to use the fairgrounds and give residents rides to see the neighborhood from above. The next day when Edie finished her tasks early, she sometimes would look at Mrs. Peebles’ clothes and even tried on a dress and put makeup on. She headed to the kitchen to drink ginger ale and gets startled by a man, named Chris Watters, standing outside the door. He mentions he 's the pilot of the plane and asks if he can obtain some water from the pump. He complimented and thanked her and left to the pump. After she rushed to take off the dress and wash her face before Mrs. Peebles arrived to the house. Mrs. Peebles commenced to ask questions about the man, but Edie contemplated on becoming fired if the man revealed how she dressed. After the Dr. and Mrs. Peebles departed to the theater, Edie ensured the children were sleeping then headed outside. She desired to talk to Chris to make sure he wouldn 't say anything about her dressed up. He assured he wouldn 't reveal anything and offered her a

In Alice Munro’s short story, “How I Met My Husband” the main protagonist Edie runs outside along with the Peebles for whom she works for, to watch as a airplane lands across their house. Edie meets Chris Watters, the pilot, after he catches her trying on Mrs. Peebles’ dress and jewelry. Alice, Chris’ fiancee, anxiously arrives in town looking for Chris, and is invited to stay with the Peebles until she can locate her husband. Edie visits Chris with food and a message Alice had left him, but instead ends up cuddled in bed with Chris. Chris abruptly ends his affair and decides to leave town promising Edie he would write to her. Edie waits for the mail every day, but never receives her letter. Giving up on Chris, Edie stops waiting for the mail. Soon after the mailman takes notice and calls up the Peebles to inquire her whereabouts. Years pass and Edie is married with children with whom she had with the mailman.

Other ironies in “How I Met My Husband” is that when Edie tells a lie to Chris Watters’ fiance about where he was going she is lying to herself as well. Not only did Edie feel in love with Chris when she found out about Alice; she did not think she would end up like her, even though she was essentially in the same situation as her. Edie felt ‘in love’ with Chris, but she later falls