The short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” written by Joyce Carol Oates takes place in America during the 1960’s. The story is about a young feeble minded girl named Connie and her encounter with Arnold Friend someone who exploits women. Connie is a very flamboyant person and it gets her in a heap of trouble. Arnold Friend drives to Connie’s house while her parents aren’t there and the reader is led to believe that he rapes her. The story is an important book to read because it shows the reader for one, the dangers that are present if not now more than ever for a teenage girl going out alone. The consequences of not being too careful and being dishonest with family about where you are going or what you are doing is shown in
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He’s a creepy man who’s ultimatum is unknown. In the story and film the reader is unsure but led to believe that he has done this before and plans to do it again. The story says “It was a boy with shaggy black hair, in a convertible jalopy painted gold. He stared at her and then his lips widened into a grin. Connie slit her eyes at him and turned away, but she couldn 't help glancing back and there he was, still watching her. He wagged a finger and laughed and said, "Gonna get you, baby," and Connie turned away again without Eddie noticing anything.”(325). In the film this is exactly how Arnold appears and talks to Connie for the first time. Also in the encounter for the second time Connie hs with Arnold in paragraph twelve of the short story, Arnold 's dialogue with Connie is spoken word for word as Oates wrote it.The dialogue and even the tone that Arnold speaks to Connie in are important to the story because the reader really gets the feel for how creepy and almost disturbing Arnold as a person really is. The movie did a great job having Arnold speak the exact words he did and the true meaning behind each word could be felt in his tone in both the story and the …show more content…
In the book, the reader is unsure if Connie is raped or even killed in the story. While in the film it shows Connie after the encounter with Arnold Friend talking to her sister and saying something along the lines of, you won’t feel defiled or disgusted by me, leading the viewer to believe more that she was raped. The story says “"My sweet little blue-eyed girl," he said in a half-sung sigh that had nothing to do with her brown eyes but was taken up just the same by the vast sunlit reaches of the land behind him and on all sides of him—so much land that Connie had never seen before and did not recognize except to know that she was going to it.”(Oates 336). The film 's interpretation while not one hundred percent wrong, was still led astray by showing anything after the talk at the screen door. This was an important part of the book because it let the reader decide what happened to Connie next. It made the film worse by not leaving it to the imagination of the viewer as to what happened next whether it being Connie’s demise or rescue or any of the sorts. It did not do as good of a job as the book because of that simple but important
He’s a creepy man who’s ultimatum is unknown. In the story and film the reader is unsure but led to believe that he has done this before and plans to do it again. The story says “It was a boy with shaggy black hair, in a convertible jalopy painted gold. He stared at her and then his lips widened into a grin. Connie slit her eyes at him and turned away, but she couldn 't help glancing back and there he was, still watching her. He wagged a finger and laughed and said, "Gonna get you, baby," and Connie turned away again without Eddie noticing anything.”(325). In the film this is exactly how Arnold appears and talks to Connie for the first time. Also in the encounter for the second time Connie hs with Arnold in paragraph twelve of the short story, Arnold 's dialogue with Connie is spoken word for word as Oates wrote it.The dialogue and even the tone that Arnold speaks to Connie in are important to the story because the reader really gets the feel for how creepy and almost disturbing Arnold as a person really is. The movie did a great job having Arnold speak the exact words he did and the true meaning behind each word could be felt in his tone in both the story and the …show more content…
In the book, the reader is unsure if Connie is raped or even killed in the story. While in the film it shows Connie after the encounter with Arnold Friend talking to her sister and saying something along the lines of, you won’t feel defiled or disgusted by me, leading the viewer to believe more that she was raped. The story says “"My sweet little blue-eyed girl," he said in a half-sung sigh that had nothing to do with her brown eyes but was taken up just the same by the vast sunlit reaches of the land behind him and on all sides of him—so much land that Connie had never seen before and did not recognize except to know that she was going to it.”(Oates 336). The film 's interpretation while not one hundred percent wrong, was still led astray by showing anything after the talk at the screen door. This was an important part of the book because it let the reader decide what happened to Connie next. It made the film worse by not leaving it to the imagination of the viewer as to what happened next whether it being Connie’s demise or rescue or any of the sorts. It did not do as good of a job as the book because of that simple but important