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Essay 1 Readings:  Questions for Discussion

"Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?"


These discussion questions are designed to help you think
about the stories you have read.  If you wish,  you can answer
the discussion questions in your reading comments for Essay 1.

You can also select ONE of the discussion questions to
serve as the focus for your Essay 1 Paper.

The story "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been" has a
Tucson connection.  You can read about this connection in the
March 4, 1966 issue of Life magazine.  Oates based the character
of Arnold Friend on Charles Schmid, "The Pied Piper of Tucson,"
after reading at least part of the Life magazine story.
However, readers of this short story have completely removed that
origin in some of their more theoretical studies.  What do you think
about studying this story as a fairy tale, devil and the maiden tale,
or other allegory that removes the real life core from it? Read an
Oates interview online.  They pop up with a google search of her
name.   Here is how one critic sees Oates' view of the world:

Although Oates is interested in the Gothic in a literary/historical sense
(especially in BELLEFLEUR and the other "postmodernist Gothics,") she seems
primarily to have discovered that this mode of writing corresponds to her
vision of nature and society as brutal, horrific, and both physically and
psychologically violent. As long ago as 1969 she remarked, "Gothicism,
whatever it is, is not a literary tradition so much as a fairly realistic
assessment of modern life."

"The story "Where Are You--" contains symbolism, a term used for
stories that have persons, places, actions, events, or objects, that in
addition to its literal meaning, suggests a more complex meaning
or range of meaning. Critics see different things in "Arnold Friend."
What might he symbolize?
You can read more about symbolism in Literature: Reading, Reacting,
and Responding on pages 253-59.

In "Where Are You--,"  who do you see as the central character?  Why?

A film version of "Where Are You--" has been made.  It is called
Smooth Talk (1985).   The ending of the film is different than the ending
of Oates' story.  How do you feel about the changes that director
Joyce Chopra made to Oates' story?  What ethical issues, if any, do these
changes from story to film raise?

Compare and contrast the characters in "Where Are You--"
with the characters in  "Teenage Wasteland" (Literature, pp. 459-66).  

Research project: thinking ahead for the term paper, you might study
the characteristics of bullies and victims. There is psychological
literature on these personality types.   How might someone in counselling have helped Connie to see that she was engaging in risky behavior?


Bonnie Henry Aug. 15th, 2003 column on murder house: the house has
a past but "Good Vibes" Have Evicted the "Ghost."

Excellent bibliography at: (official Oates web page)

http://www.usfca.edu/fac-staff/southerr/wgoing.html





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