Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?
"Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" is a frequently anthologized(將...收入編選) short story written by Joyce Carol Oates. The story first appeared in the Fall 1966 edition of Epoch Magazine. It was inspired by three Tucson, Arizona murders committed by Charles Schmid, which were profiled in Life magazine in an article written by Don Moser on March 4, 1966. Oates said that she dedicated the story to Bob Dylan because she had been inspired to write it after listening to his song "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue."[citation needed]
The story was loosely adapted into the 1985 film Smooth Talk, starring Laura Dern and Treat Williams.
Plot
The main character of Oates's story is Connie, a beautiful but self-absorbed 15-year-old girl, who is at odds with her mother--once a beauty herself--and with her dutiful(恭順的), "steady(沉靜從容的)", and homely(長得不好看的) older sister. Without her parents' knowledge, she spends most of her evenings picking up boys at a Big Boy restaurant, and one evening captures the attention of a stranger in a gold convertible covered with cryptic writing. While her parents are away at her aunt's barbecue, two men pull up in front of her house and call Connie out. She recognizes the driver, Arnold Friend, as the man from the drive-in restaurant, and is initially charmed by the smooth-talking, charismatic stranger in his fashionable tight jeans and white T-shirt. He tells Connie he is eighteen and has come to take her for a ride in his car with his sidekick Ellie. Connie slowly realizes that he is actually much older, and grows afraid. As Connie refuses to go with him, he becomes more forceful and threatening, saying that he will harm her family (while at the same time appealing to Connie's vanity, saying that she is too good for them), until Connie is compelled to leave with him and do what he demands of her. The story ends as Connie leaves her front porch(門廊); her eventual fate is left ambiguous.
Joyce Carol Oates
Joyce Carol Oates (born June 16, 1938) is an American author. Oates published her first book in 1963 and has since published over fifty novels, as well as many volumes of short stories, poetry, and nonfiction. Her novel them (1969) won the National Book Award, and her novels Black Water (1992), What I Lived For (1994), and Blonde (2000) were nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. As of 2008, Oates is the Roger S. Berlind '52 Professor in the Humanities with the Program in Creative Writing at Princeton University, where she has taught since 1978.[2]
rundown (n.) the process of making a business or industry smaller and less important
(stock car racing, slang, not-well cat)
nag (v.) to criticize or complain repeatedly in an annoying way
**nagging
e.g. My mum's always nagging me to get my hair cut.
流氓大亨
《流氓大亨》是張婉婷導演拍攝的香港電影，香港片名為《秋天的童話》。在1987年上映，由周潤發、鍾楚紅主演。電影獲得第七屆香港電影金像獎最佳電影、最佳編劇(羅啟銳)、最佳攝影（James Hayman、鍾志文）三項獎項，同時得到最佳男、女主角及最佳音樂提名。電影在台灣上演時改名為「流氓大亨」，周潤發奪得金馬獎最佳男主角。
流氓大亨大部份場面在美國拍攝。描寫的是一個細緻、童話式的愛情故事。周潤發及鍾楚紅皆有上佳演出。特別是周潤發由英雄本色內的英雄大哥轉變成唐人街企堂「船頭尺」，令人耳目一新。戲中一幕周潤發買了禮物欲送鍾楚紅，卻見紅隨其前度男友離去，臉上的難過及失望表情令人印象深刻。周潤發雖以此片提名香港電影金像獎最佳男主角，但卻以同年的另一部電影龍虎風雲獲獎。
An Autumn's Tale is a 1987 Hong Kong-made romantic drama set in New York City starring Chow Yun-fat, Cherie Chung, and Danny Chan. This is Mabel Cheung second movie as a director after her "migration trilogy(移民三部曲)."
The movie won the Hong Kong Film Awards for Best Film [1], Best Cinematographer (James Hayman and David Chung) [2], Best Screenplay (Alex Law) [3], Chow was nominated three times for Best Actor in the same year, but won with his performance in Prison on Fire. Cherie Chung was nominated for Best Actress and Lowell Lo was nominated for Best Original Score, respectively. The film is listed at #49 on the Hong Kong Film Awards' Best 100 Chinese Films of the Century.
歲月神偷
《歲月神偷》（英語：Echoes of the Rainbow）是2010年港產片，導演羅啟銳，監製張婉婷，由任達華，吳君如，李治廷，鍾紹圖和蔡穎恩等主演。 2010年2月榮獲第60屆柏林影展新生代單元兒童電影部分最佳影片水晶熊獎。
該片由電影發展基金資助拍製 [1]。主要外景包括上環永利街及拔萃男書院校舍，更有多名真正的男拔師生客串演出。
劇情描寫一家香港人如何面對環境的改變，將光陰比喻為偷走身邊很多美好東西的小偷。
以一個四人家庭為骨幹，父親（任達華飾）開設一家造鞋舖，母親（吳君如飾）是推銷員。長子羅進一，Desmond（李治廷飾）是成績優異的拔萃男書院學生，與拔萃女書院學生Flora（蔡穎恩飾）談戀愛。幼子羅進二（鍾紹圖飾）則和哥哥完全相反。
Echoes of the Rainbow (traditional Chinese: 歲月神偷; Jyutping: Seoi Jyut San Tau; romanisation: Shui Yuet Sun Tau; literally "Time, the Thief") is a 2010 Hong Kong drama film directed by Alex Law and starring Simon Yam and Sandra Ng. It won the Crystal Bear for the Best Film in the Children’s Jury "Generation Kplus" category at the 2010 Berlin Film Festival.[1]
It tells the story of a working family in Hong Kong whose eldest son, a popular boy and star athlete, becomes ill with leukemia.
The film is set in 1960s British Hong Kong and was shot on the historical Wing Lee Street in Sheung Wan. It was financed by the Hong Kong government's Film Development Fund.[2]
dandy, clown, fishy
**dandy (n.) a man, especially in the past, who dressed in expensive, fashionable clothes and was very interested in his own appearance
futile (a.) (of actions) having no effect or achieving nothing; unsuccessful:
e.g. Attempts to get supplies to the region are futile because troops will not allow the aid convoy to enter the city.
self-absorbed (a.) only interested in yourself and your own activities
at odds with 和...不一致
He's always at odds with his father over politics.
pick up
pick up 英音：['pik ʌp] 美音：['pɪk ʌp]
1.拾起
The boy picked up the hat for the old man.
男孩替老人拾起了帽子。
2.收拾
You should pick up the tools after work.
工作結束後應該把工具收拾好。
3.學到;獲得
He was picking up the skills quickly.
他正在很快地掌握技術。
4.【口】與...偶然結識(常指與異性調情)
We picked up a couple of girls at the pub last Friday.
上星期五我們在酒吧結識了幾個女孩。
drive-in restaurant 得來速
snapshot (n.) a photograph taken quickly and often not very skilfully
chunky (a.) describes clothes that are thick and heavy, or jewellery made of large pieces
1. Discuss Connie’s character. What kind of person is she? How might her name be symbolic?
Connie, a beautiful self-absorbed girl, is a girl who longs for love. Under the strong strings of her family, she tried hard to be different from her sister persuading the extraordinary love experience. She has lots of interests in sexuality and sometimes has daydreams regarding it. For her name has the symbol of “steadfast”, she always did what she wants following her name. But from time to time, with hesitate and horror, she didn’t know what to do and whether is correct.
2. Talk about Arnold Friend. Give three details about him that make him peculiar or unusual. Use quotes from the literature, please.
"He had a shaggy, shabby black hair that looked crazy as a wig" I consider this might be the frame of men of his age. But I don't like his look and especially the shabby hairstyle. Men should be clean and gentle, gleeing and attracting girls with low and charming voice.
"I'll come inside you where it's all secret and you'll give in to me and you'll love me." shows his direct intension to invade little Connie. He is such rude man and has no romantic temperament. Besides, his words of the text are very strange and lack of grammatical usage. He might be a poor-educated person fooling around all day.
3. What do the flies in the story suggest?
The flies in the stories appeared when Arnold asked Connie out. Flies seemed around Connie's mind when she was told to be out for a ride. I think that she is willing to get out of the house, but she was afraid that her parents would come back earlier than herself and that she would be out with two strange unfamiliar men. She was kind of worried but , as a teenager, her mind has been going out of the door.
4.Where IS Connie going?
According to the story line, I think Connie is going to the imaginary world where she is able to accomplish her goals and nobody will deter her from persuading the freedom of sexuality. She wants to release the great pressure that her family gave her and escape from the comparison with her sister. More independent about her life, she wants to control things around her.
5. Oates alludes to at least three fairy tales in the story. Try to find these allusions and comment about how they enhance the story’s meaning.
We can find fairy tales like "Rapunzel", "Swan Lake", and "Cupid and Psyche" in the story. Those talk about the journeys to save the princess. I think that Connie regards herself as a princess and wishes her prince charming to save her from her tasteless, boring life. She wants them to be the heroes and bravely destroy the moral restrictions. She wouldn't like to be the princess in the tower, but hopes the prince to complete her desire of sexuality.
6. Using your steps of literary analysis, state the story’s theme.
The story is about a girl called Connie who long for love and freedom of sexuality like most of teenagers. She was often contrasted with her sister, no matter how pretty she thought she really is. One morning, when her family went barbecue party, she chose to stay home and started to daydream. Then, she countered two strange men and was asked out. Although his look fit her mind, but finally did she find that they are demons. After invaded by Arnold, she seemed to come to where she wanted.
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