Compare And Contrast Where Are You Going Where Have You Been

In John Updike’s “A&P” and Joyce Oates’s “Where are you going, where have you been” there are multiple intriguing similarities and differences between both protagonists. Both stories involve an adolescent 's main character who goes through a type of struggle, however, the severity of their struggles differ greatly. “A&P” includes a young man named Sammy who loses his job grows an attachment to a small group of girls that are regular customers at the shop he works at. The situation in “Where are you going, where have you been?” is much more grim for the protagonist, a young teenage girl, Connie. She is put into a set of circumstances that put her life in danger. As Connie is home alone, a car pulls up into here driveway. She hardly recognizes

There are two major differences in both of these short stories. The severity of the problem that the protagonists differs greatly and whether or not the protagonist put themselves in an unfavorable situation is there fault or not also differs. Sammy is put in a troubling situation through his own choices. He had the option to keep quiet but instead choose to try to act out in order to impress a few girls. Connie, however, did not have this luxury. She was fundamentally forced into an ordeal that she did not want to partake in. Although Connie is without a doubt a victim in this situation, an argument could be made that Sammy is a victim as well. While I wholeheartedly agree that Connie is most definitely a victim, I cannot agree that Sammy is a victim as well. It was by his own choice that he was left without a job. No one forced him to call out his boss for kicking a couple girls out of the shop he worked in. This leads me to believe that believe that Sammy is not a victim. It was his own fault that he lost his job. Although Updike and Oates both choose to put the protagonist in danger, they contrasted on whether it was the protagonist 's own fault for being in danger. Both Updike and Oates use similar protagonist problems to build both stories around the struggle of adolescents. In “Where are you going, where have you been?” Connie is obviously a victim of the position she is put in. In “A&P” although Sammy was left without a job, I am left to conclude that this is by his own fault and therefore he is not a victim. Both protagonists were put in situations that caused them harm. And although these stories contrasted in multiple areas, they are more similar than