"What I Eat" by Charlotte Morgan;

"Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" by Joyce Carol Oates

 Morgan_What-I-Eat.pdf

 Oates_Where.pdf

1. In stories like these, authors often avoid spelling out the details in the way a crime TV show would, but this doesn’t mean that any conclusion you may draw on the “what” is equally valid or even accurate. “What I Eat” excels at the subtle foreshadowing of what will happen to Cece (and even beyond). Find two examples where Morgan slips in some subtle foreshadowing of what will happen to CeCe.

 

2. What happens to Connie after the action of the story has ended? Support your answer with specific evidence from the text. Why doesn’t Oates come right out and tell us? (Note: by now, you should know that I want you to think more deeply than “because it’s more interesting,” “so the reader can decide,” or “to build suspense.” It isn’t that authors don’t want their readers to be able to imagine for themselves, but they do it for a very specific reason, and if you choose that line of thought, be ready with a credible, high-quality specific reason.)

 

4. One of the things you have heard me rail about by now is that the main character always wants something. The narrator of “What I Eat” does not come right out and say why he does what he does, or what he hopes to achieve. Yet, because I told you that all characters want something, and I don’t lie to you, what does this character want? (Note: this should be more than a superficial thing. Like, if you say all he wants is a fresh cup of coffee, you will not like the grade I award to your “effort.” You need to be thinking deeper, about what this guy wants in life.)

 

8. Music runs through "Where are You Going..." and is a crucial part of Connie's understanding of her world. We also tend to think of the early 1960s (when this story was written), as an innocent time compared to now. Do a Google search for lyrics to "Li'l Red Riding Hood" by Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs and "Please Please Me" by the Beatles, and discuss Connie's view of love. Be sure to include evidence from the story as well as at least one top 10 pop hit from the years 1963-1966.

 

 

Question 1 "Foreshadowing"

The first examples of foreshadowing in "What I Eat" occur in an early passage, and vary in subtlety. (Some are about as subtle as a sledge-hammer). About three paragraphs into his ludicrous rant about people being what they eat, it's revealed he has a girl in the trunk. He states it very matter-of-factly with no seeming remorse. Okay, that's the sledge-hammer sign that things won't go well for the girl: here's a guy that's "several donuts shy of a dozen" mentally, with a kidnapped girl in the trunk. But some less obvious allusions to her death follow. In his musings about what CeCe is foodwise, he observes "I ain't give her nothing to eat in almost two days... So, looking at it that way, she'd be nothing. Zip. Zero-ski." [my italics] (Morgan 310). Those last three terms reference CeCe's fate. As in zero existence.

The fact that he's parked the car out on a highway in back of an abandoned barbecue joint doesn't bode well either. "You could yell your fool head off out back here, behind this old rusty Dempstey Dumpster, wouldn't nobody know" (312). The location reveals he is up to no good, and doesn't want to be observed. Again, not so subtle... But the dumpster is. Things we no longer have a use for end up in them sometimes. It serves as a symbol for CeCe's "coffin".

A couple more quick instances: his reference to the "food-test" being a type of "scientific experiment, like when they cut open them frogs in school to see what they's like inside" (313). This portends CeCe's eventual autopsy. (Everything about this guy, his illiterate-sounding choice of words, his mental imagery- I can't help but imagine the Criminal Minds team sitting around profiling this one). He also has a bit of a problem with the fact that CeCe is letting her food get cold [my italics]. Bodies get cold too.

To go on a "hunt" for these hints an author gives the reader is very enlightening for me. It really makes me appreciate the writing craft on a deeper level.

Question 2 "Connie's Fate"

For starters, I have read this story at least three times for courses in my community college and UNCG experience, and have become more convinced with each reading that things end very badly for Connie. This time, I went on a serious hunt for the foreshadowing clues, much like the approach to question 1 above. I'll cite these first, (some very subtle and open to interpretation); then give what I think are more obvious clues.

The foreshadowings: In relating the outings that Connie and her friends go on without adult supervision, the author mentions that "sometimes they went across the highway, ducking fast across the busy road" (Oates 1048). Flirting with death, in other words. The drive-in restaurant they're going to is "fly-infested' (1048), another allusion to death/decay. It is in this restaurant's parking lot that Connie first encounters the black haired "boy" in the gold convertible. She merely walks by, notices him staring at her, and seems a bit intrigued by it. "He wagged a finger and laughed and said 'Gonna get you, baby' " (1049). (Okay, that's more obvious, but at this point in the story there was no guarantee that they would meet again).One of the best and extremely subtle exchanges in my opinion is when Connie's mother suddenly asks "What's this about the Pettinger girl?" and Connie replies "Oh, her. That dope" (1049). So much innuendo with so little said. A strong implication that the Pettinger girl got in some kind of trouble (pregnancy?) and that Connie was in denial that such things could happen to herself.

From the time that Arnold Friend pulls into the driveway, the signs begin to become more clear that there is something sinister lurking under the surface of the visit. (And you've got to love the irony of Arnold's last name). His hair looked "crazy as a wig" (1050) because most likely it was. This is an older man pretending to be young so he can prey upon young girls. He reveals that he knows her name, and all her friends, and even where her family has gone. He is a stalker. Why has his friend has come along with him? In case things get rough; some extra muscle. I think one of the most chilling moments is when it becomes apparent to Connie that she's in trouble, and she asks, "What are you going to do?" [he answers] "Just two things, or maybe three" (1058). To leave them to the reader's imagination really ramps up the suspense. But we kind of know, don't we? I assume from the question that I'm supposed to spell it out. Connie gets raped. That is a certainty. She is probably also murdered, but there's a little more leeway there. That is the "maybe three" mentioned above. But what was number two? Some sort of humiliation maybe- better left unsaid. That's the true disturbing genius of this story. Oates makes us tap into our own dark corners.

Oates's choice to leave Connie's fate unresolved is the best possible way to end the story, because it absolutely mirrors Connie's own state of mind as she leaves in the convertible. She knows it's not going to go well for her, and we the readers do too. But she doesn't know the details, and will have several excruciating moments of suspense and anticipation before they happen. Oates wanted to leave us with that same unspoken terror and dread so we could fully appreciate Connie's dilemma.

Question 4 "What He Wants"

The narrator in "What I Eat" has constructed an extremely irrational universe for himself. The clues about a troubled childhood are abundant in his flashbacks- watching porn with his mom and her boyfriend (ergo a child of divorce) while they drink and smoke pot. Not exactly model supervision. He has had a stint in reform school, which means he committed crimes as a juvenile, and no surprise there. His internal dialogue is illiterate and often inane. He's had a hard life, and has a major inferiority complex. He is attacking the voice of authority with his diatribe against "you are what you eat", and he has taken the advertising slogan all too literally. The man is a mess.

Somehow, as a result of all these hardships growing up, and almost certainly many times when he went hungry in a big way- the idea of food has become an obsession for him, and for now at least (who knows what other crazy tangents he's gone off on) he has come up with the "food-test" as a way to pronounce judgement on his victims and society as a whole. If they won't eat the same foods that he does (i.e., if they are too "high-class" for him) then they are not worthy of living. He's been looked down upon all his life, no doubt, and this is his retaliation. What does he ultimately want? Acceptance. But he's so warped at this point that he's not going to find it, and it's become a matter of revenge.

Question 8 "Music for Connie"

I know that there is a movie version of this story (starring Laura Dern as Connie and Treat Williams as Arnold Friend) called Smooth Talk. If they didn't put "Little Red Riding Hood" in the soundtrack, they missed a great opportunity. (And I don't think they did- all I can learn is that there were some James Taylor songs). The lyrics are perfect for the dynamic between Arnold Friend and Connie:

Hey there Little Red Riding Hood
You sure are looking good
You're everything a big bad wolf could want...

What big eyes you have
The kind of eyes that drive wolves mad.

It's very fitting imagery, the wolf (Friend) as predator) and Little Red Riding Hood (Connie) as victim.

Now the Beatles. Such an innocent sounding song, but the lyrics reveal something else:

Last night I said these words to my girl
I know you never even try, girl...  Come on (repeats)

You don't need me to show the way, love
Why do I always have to say, love?... Come on (repeats) 

Please please me oh yeah like I please you.

(Come on and what? Give me sex- that's what).I doubt that the Beatles were having much trouble with that, even this early in their career.

Connie, in the story, is naive about love. It's a sort of fantasy, probably based on movies she's seen and songs she's listened to. "All the boys fell back and dissolved into a single face that was not even a face, but an idea, a feeling, mixed up with the urgent insistent pounding of the music and the humid night air of July" (Oates 1049). A beautiful wording there that captures the essence of teen love.

When I read the prompt, a song came to mind immediately. Although it fall slightly outside the time-window given (1968) I think it applies. "Time of the Season" by The Zombies. It captures a little bit of Arnold Friend's menace.

It's the time of the season
When love runs high
In this time, give it to me easy
And let me try with pleasured hands

To take you in the sun to promised lands
To show you every one
It's the time of the season for loving

What's your name?
Who's your daddy?
Is he rich like me?
Has he taken any time
To show you what you need to live?

https://youtu.be/qzpPy9hJYA8  (A link to the video for any of you that haven't heard this song).